


Little Talks

by fiveyaaas



Series: Fiveya Soulmate AUs [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alluther and horrance are there but they’re side characters, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Eventual Smut, F/M, I am going to have multiple soulmate AUs that I write in this but they’re unrelated, M rating is for eventual smut, Songfic, Soulmates, five never left in this, technically, there are still mentions of smut in the first chapter though, warning for underage because they’re seventeen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:08:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 33,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25205974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveyaaas/pseuds/fiveyaaas
Summary: Vanya and Five almost constantly heard each other’s thoughts. It was a fact that once angered Allison, who heard Luther a seldom amount of times. Five had told Allison this with the purpose of angering her, perhaps trying to say “at least Vanya’s bond is not ordinary like yours.” When Vanya had heard the argument they had as they trained and she had practiced a simpler piece, she had not felt like he had defended her honor. She felt like he had shared something intimate, breaching her privacy to make Allison mad. Deeper down, she admitted to herself, the fact that she was ordinary in every way except her connection to him was what really stung.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves
Series: Fiveya Soulmate AUs [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1826062
Comments: 104
Kudos: 247





	1. So hold my hand I’ll walk with you my dear

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in a universe where soulmates exist (obviously), and soulmates are able to hear one another’s thoughts. Five never left in this AU, and this is set when they are seventeen (but might have flashbacks in future chapters). Title and chapter titles are taken from Of Monsters & Men. Most italicized things are them communicating with one another, if it’s under quotations and italicized assume it’s them speaking to each other.

Vanya was reading through a score of Prokofiev’s  _ Romeo and Juliet Suite,  _ humming the piece softly to herself when the familiar sound of Five’s voice cut into her thoughts. 

“ _ Can you please stop thinking that so loud? _ ”

She made a discontented noise, trying to express verbal annoyance back to him. He seemed to be actively ignoring it. 

To be fair to Five, if she ever asked him to quiet the constant equations and musings of time travel in his brain, he would immediately silence himself. He explained once that if he was writing equations down, his mind could go absent, blank even. She knew from her own experience that playing a piece from muscle memory alone did the same for her. When they needed silence, this was all they could really do to help. 

Most soulmates did not have this issue. Vanya had read once that some heard the voices of their soulmates in their head just once in their entire lives. Some of the other academy members whispered around that Diego, the only one who did not know his soulmate yet, had never heard them speak. 

Vanya and Five almost constantly heard each other’s thoughts. It was a fact that once angered Allison, who heard Luther a seldom amount of times. Five had told Allison this with the purpose of angering her, perhaps trying to say “at least Vanya’s bond is not ordinary like yours.” When Vanya had heard the argument they had as they trained and she had practiced a simpler piece, she had not felt like he had defended her honor. She felt like he had shared something intimate, breaching her privacy to make Allison mad. Deeper down, she admitted to herself, the fact that she was ordinary in every way except her connection to him was what really stung. 

It would have been nice if she had known how to mute her thoughts then, but when he appeared in her room that night and heard the pain in her thoughts, she just wanted to disappear instead. He had apologized multiple times, ears turning red. His thoughts had been a jumbled mess, but she did not want his pity. She had thought then that she had no idea how anybody would ever want to be with their soulmate. His eyes had turned immediately stricken and she recognized the hurt in his eyes immediately, but he had forced his thoughts into a slew of complicated equations so that she wasn’t able to know what he felt. 

They both knew that she already knew how he felt anyways. 

“ _ You mentally monologuing about how horrible it is to be my soulmate is both loud  _ and  _ vaguely hurtful.” _

Her lips quirked. She could tell from the shape of the words in her mind that he was not upset. It was hard for either of them to be upset with one another, all things considered. When they were mad at one another, it made things much harder. She envied Allison and Luther, who had to work so hard to hear the other’s thoughts. They at least had some privacy. Even when she or Five was asleep, their dreams often clashed. When Five had a rather fascinating dream about her skirts, both of them had woken up flushed. Vanya had hummed music loudly to herself and Five loudly thought about the new techniques of disarming he had learned yesterday. 

“ _ What if I thought about skirts instead?”  _

_ “I imagine that would make these equations undoubtedly less fascinating and thus harder to work with.” _

_ “What are you even working on?”  _

_ “I’d rather talk about this skirt thing. Is this the academy skirt at current length or has it been hemmed?” _

He was changing the subject. She knew why and could hear the guilt coloring his thoughts. He was planning to time travel again, one of the rare instances where they did not agree on something. Unfortunately, it came up often. Five tried to avoid thinking about it, but he was often unsuccessful. 

When they had been thirteen, he had tried to run away and travel time. Vanya had told him repeatedly that she thought it was dangerous. Hearing his thoughts the second he decided he would do it whether or not Vanya went along with him while he stood off with Reginald hadn’t prompted her to say anything to him. Instead, her brain had filled with a white noise. He had looked over in alarm to her then. She heard the second he chose to stay too, seeing her attempt to hide her crying face from him. 

She knew he still thought about it and tried not to. She also knew he liked to change the subject when it was brought up. 

“ _ I’m not mad at you. I don’t want to fight about this though.”  _

Sending the thought to him was the best she could do, hoping that it may make him resent her less. 

“ _ I don’t resent you, Vanya. I just don’t understand why you don’t want us to get away from him too.” _

Her stomach hurt. They were seventeen, old enough that in a year they could run away together, time travel or no. The thought of them endangering themselves now felt irresponsible. 

“ _ I want to leave too. You know it’s not that.” _

_ “We could run any second, though.” _

_ “We could die any second too.” _

His thoughts then turned to a self deprecating mantra to himself, though, by the way he kept trying to force himself to think of ways in which he could have made his most recent mission quicker, she knew he was trying really hard not to let that on. 

A wave of remorse brushed through her, knowing that he was in pain and trying not to let on. She wanted to comfort him, but she also knew that he would be upset if she did. It occurred to her rather quickly that distraction, at the very least, might work.

“ _ It wouldn’t be hemmed, so much as pushed up enough that you could get a better view.” _

_ “I’m trying to work on this, Vanya.” _

_ “Why were you trying to think of a mission that happened three days ago then?”  _

She could practically see him sputter as he tried to imagine a way in which he could change the subject.

“ _ You’re aware I can see you trying to find ways to change the subject, right?” _

_ “Indulge me in your dirty school girl fantasy, then, if you must.”  _

She laughed, flicking the lights off in her bedroom after setting the score on her small desk. She wondered if she should bother getting under the covers or if Five would want them to sleep in his room instead since he had a slightly larger and more comfortable bed. 

“ _ It is not  _ my _ fantasy, you know.” _

_ “Don’t bother messing with the blankets. I’m getting you now.”  _

_ “Should I put my skirt back on, then?” _

The familiar blue of his powers briefly lit her room. She barely had time to register his face and arms against her before he teleported again, landing them on his bed. 

“That won’t be necessary,” he whispers in her ear. She groans, wondering if everyone felt the sharp sensation of hearing their soulmate’s voice aloud rather than just in their thoughts. 

“I can’t hear that delightful noise when it’s just our thoughts, so I would assume,” he said before pressing their lips together. She whimpered, pushing her hips up. They had never gone beyond a lot of exploration with their hands (and mouths), but she often wanted it to. With his power, he would be able to get some method of protection for them, but Reginald was a constant looming presence. Five suspected that his reasoning for never separating them was an attempt at either A) keeping him in line and following orders or B) Vanya having another child for him to experiment on. It was a thought that disturbed them both immensely, and they did not plan on going any further than they had until they were far, far away from him. 

They survived. Neither of them wanted to be there, in that house, with that man watching their steps. Vanya felt the dread of it constantly, but she felt fear more than anything. She did not know if she would ever truly feel safe. 

***

Vanya fell asleep as quickly as she always did, and Five was able to mentally exhale once she was truly unconscious. The only time she remembered dreams was when both of their dreams bled into one another and it was technically he who remembered them. Because their minds were such a jumbled mess, he did not figure this out until he was about ten. Vanya had awful nightmares that year, and he learned that if he stayed up while she had them and thought of good things hard enough, she would not remember her nightmares in the morning. He didn’t mind losing a few hours of sleep if it meant she was happy the next day. Plus, being tired dulled his thoughts just enough to where they could have a small break anyways. 

He had to get her out of there. Reginald had given him a clear mission earlier today, one that they feared would happen for a while. Reginald claimed that it was because Vanya did not have to go on their missions that she was needed for this. Five suspected that him choosing Vanya also was a way to punish Five specifically, hoping to teach him the lesson of what happened when he defied Reginald. 

Vanya did not know these things though because he was very good about not thinking about it. He instead let himself think of time travel, fantasize again about running away like he once did as a pastime. The second his calculations were 100% thorough, which he suspected could take as little as a week, he would grab her hand and take her away. He would take her just far enough that Reginald could have no control over their lives. 

He could not tell her, which was both nearly impossible and incredibly unsettling. He told her everything even if he  _ could  _ hide things more easily than her.

There was a very small layer of doubt, something he imagined came from hearing Vanya constantly expressing fear of his leaving. He understood that her worrying about him was something she couldn't control, but he worried that there was on some level the fear that he would leave her. 

Five did not enjoy the concept of soulmates. There was a point where he would have left her because being with her meant that he was being controlled, even if just by fate. He would have rathered that neither of them had soulmates, maybe one day still being together. He kept this part actively quiet, though remembering her face that day when he was thirteen made him feel guilt for ever saying it. It was not that Vanya was ever the problem, but she would never be able to understand it. She was constantly excluded from everything, having this bond was a lifeline for her. If he had left her that day, he would have almost hoped that she would never want to see him again. Her being angry would hurt less than hearing the thoughts constantly in her head about not being good enough, nobody wanting her. 

He was an audience to these thoughts, constantly. He tried not to respond to them, letting her have privacy even if he could not give it. Every time she was excluded from something else, he felt the crushing pain. It was even worse when she found out through the bond that she was about to experience more of Reginald’s bullshit. He grew to recognize when Vanya was crying because it felt like her thoughts were clouded and hazy, and if he pushed onto the bond just a bit more he could see the blurry view of the world from her perspective. 

Neither of them tried to push too hard on the bond, they had an agreement that only in emergencies would they be allowed to. When he was on missions, he could feel her presence almost like she was right behind him. He would rather that she did not see them, but he wasn’t going to get mad at her for caring.

It was possibly the darkness of his thoughts that prompted the anxiety Vanya got before a nightmare. She twitched in her sleep, and he could see the visions in her head as clearly as if they were his own. 

Fuck. He forced himself to try to think of anything that was possibly good in their lives, something that got harder each year. 

Unable to think of anything, he just kept repeating “ _ you’re okay _ ” as loudly as he could. The nightmare vanished quickly, and Vanya’s body relaxed back into her normal sleeping position. 

He had to get her out of there.


	2. It’s killing me to see you this way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five and Ben are hurt during a mission, Vanya takes pills to numb herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be smut in this chapter, do not read the final section if you do not want to read it. I am not certain if this needs to be moved up to E rating, but I think it can still stay at M because even though it’s detailed it’s not PWP. However, if any of y’all think it should be made E, please tell me and I can adjust the rating accordingly!

When Vanya woke up to an empty bed, her thoughts jumbled into a panicked chaos. 

“ _ Mission. _ ”

He said nothing else, though when she followed the threads of his side of the bond and saw what he was seeing, she realized it was just because he was trying to focus. 

She grimaced. Usually, she would have been able to notice him leaving, but she had taken an extra pill yesterday. They clouded her thoughts and made her sleep like the dead. Still, she wished he would have told her he was leaving. 

Based on what she saw, he was going to be there a while, and she would be helping Grace with first aid. 

She walked slowly to the kitchen, making herself a small breakfast. When she heard Five try to disguise his pain, she took a pill. And then another. When she heard him argue with Luther about how they should retreat, she grabbed another. 

After the fourth pill, she could barely hear his thoughts at all. 

The instructions Grace gave her were to take them any time she was nervous. She had a certain amount that she wasn’t supposed to exceed, she imagined. With four pills though, she felt nothing. She did not have to grab any others. 

Faintly, she registered Five’s voice just once seeming to shout her name through the bond, but the words felt warbled. 

Grace walked up to her then. “Are you okay, dear?” 

Vanya glanced up at her, nodding her head that felt suddenly too heavy. 

“You’ve been sitting here for one hour and seventeen minutes,” Grace told her, probably would have been able to tell her from the exact second.

Vanya just stared at her blankly. Grace smiled at her sweetly, and what she thought was a second later, Pogo came to her. He said words, but they were warbled too. 

“How many did you take?” she thought she heard, and she just lifted up four fingers weakly. It wasn’t that she had never had this many, it was just very rare. Even something as strong as her bond felt like it was disconnected from her. She did not know what Five was hearing from her, but she thought it might just sound like static. 

Pogo and Grace had her lie down in her room, saying she needed to sleep longer. She did not know why they would say that when they had such strict rules here, but she did not have it in her to argue. 

Her dreams were as blank as her thoughts. 

***

The mission was a shitshow. He knew that likely all of them were going to be in the infirmary by the end of this, if not the morgue. 

It was as he thought this that he noticed Klaus yelling. Irritated, Five turned to tell him to shut up before he realized quickly what was happening. 

Ben was in Klaus’s arms, blood coating every inch of his skin. The problem was that Five was certain a lot of it was his. Five thought of how he would feel if Vanya were in the same position, and he felt anger flare up towards Luther. 

“Goddammit, Luther,” he snapped as he used more of his energy to jump to him. They had to get Ben out of there before he lost too much blood. “Tell them to retreat, now.”

Luther glared at him, “I’m the leader, Five.”

Five could usually get along with Luther, but he considered throttling him. “Are you seriously about to get Ben murdered so that you can win some sort of pissing contest with Diego?” 

Diego glanced up at his name, and Five yelled to him, “Get out of here, help Klaus carry Ben.” 

“Number Five,” Luther snapped. 

“If Allison were dying, you would have done the same thing,” he told him. 

Luther’s eyes widened. “Ben’s actually hurt that bad?”

Five wanted to yell at him, ask him why he would assume Five would exaggerate about something like that. Instead, he just ripped a piece of fabric from his uniform and went to put pressure on one of his wounds.

His stomach curled once he moved quickly enough to realize his shoulder was dislocated and he turned his head away so that his vomit wouldn’t get all over himself. Vanya was gonna yell at him once she saw the particularly large gash on this thigh, but at least he could staunch the blood flow easily.

It occurred to him then that she had been silent since when she first woke up. Usually, she was uncomfortably present during their missions. 

“ _ You okay? _ ”

No response. Maybe she fell asleep, no need to panic. Besides, now that the adrenaline was fading from his system, he could feel the pain more. He hid his grimace from Luther, still, because he did not like to advertise when he got hurt. Grace would probably have Luther fix his dislocated shoulder anyways, while she worked on Ben. At least it would probably be Vanya who did the stitches he was certain he was going to have to have on his thigh. 

They gathered in Reginald’s car, Five choosing not to jump because he was already injured. Ben was slumped against Klaus, neither of them bothering to try to hide their bond for once. They couldn’t heal one another, but at least they could comfort one another. He knew Ben and Klaus could converse easily, though for them if they wanted privacy they just “shut off” the communication. When Ben told him this, Five had gasped and asked him how that was possible. Ben couldn’t describe it though. 

“ _ Are you asleep? The mission is over. Ben’s injury is pretty bad, but I’m certain he’ll make it. Everyone’s a little beat up, so you’re going to have to do my stitches. Oh, and I need stitches. Sorry about that.” _

He didn’t understand why she wasn’t responding. He was certain she wasn’t asleep now because her dreams would be clear to him. He remembered their rule of going deeper than surface level thoughts or thoughts directed at one another; emergencies only. Surely, her being silent this long would constitute an emergency. 

He found nothing once he got deep enough to see what she was seeing. She was in the house, clearly, but it was as if there was a heavy fog coating the entire house. Her consciousness was ebbing out, and her surroundings felt almost like she was experiencing everything from underwater.

“ _ VANYA? _ ” 

His panic was clear in the way he thought the words. Usually, if he was this upset, even if they were furious at one another, she would assure him that she was fine.

She said nothing. 

He tried to claw into her mind, something that neither of them ever did. He searched everywhere but found nothing. 

And then it was as if the bond was completely shut off, like Vanya wasn’t there anymore. 

He can imagine pretty well how Klaus feels right now.

*** 

Vanya awoke to screaming. She had maybe slept another hour, but her brain felt just a little less cloudy than it did before she slept. She remembered that she expected there to be injuries, and jumped out of her bed as much as she could. Her balance was not perfect on days she only had a single pill. 

She walked groggily down the stairs, mental bond with Five still silent. Her vision felt oberly clouded, and the shouting was starting to warble the way everyone’s voices had earlier. She tripped down a step and likely would have fallen more if not for Five appearing before her before she could. 

He grimaced sharply when she grabbed onto his arm, and she could tell he had been injured immediately. 

“What happened?” she said out loud, voice shaky and feeling very far away. 

“Did he drug you?” he said, ignoring her question. His voice had a dangerous edge to it, and she didn’t know how to respond. She slumped in his arms a bit more.

“Ben has been injured, and it’s bad. I don’t know if you heard. I am going downstairs and getting Luther to put my shoulder back in place, but I’m taking you with me. Are you able to stand?” 

She blinked. He was the injured one, why would he be asking her that? She tried walking another step and if she focused very hard it was not impossible. 

They somehow made it to where Luther and Allison were sitting next to one another downstairs. Allison, upon seeing Vanya, sneered. 

“Why do you have to make everything about yourself, Seven?” 

Vanya was confused, not sure how to respond to that. She could see Five very much knew though, and she tried her hardest to project out “ _ please don’t make this worse _ .” She wasn’t certain if it was her face or her thoughts that made him not say anything though. 

“Luther, I need help with my shoulder,” he said through gritted teeth. 

Luther helped him, seemingly oblivious to any of the tension going on. Allison probably was yelling in her mind about this, but he clearly didn’t hear it. 

When Five’s shoulder was back in place, he grabbed some materials to get a place on his thigh that was still bleeding stitched. 

Vanya sat shakily down, and when he came back with a first aid kit in his hands and started pouring on some hydrogen peroxide, Allison made a face. 

“Are you fixing that yourself?” 

Five did not respond, and Vanya was so panicked as he started doing his own stitches that the fog cleared from her brain somewhat. Enough that she could hear him thinking. 

“ _ Stupid bitch-“ _

_ “What did I do?”  _

He glanced up, eyes wide. The needle stabbed his leg, and she frowned at him. He focused his attention back on his leg, but his thoughts filled her mind again.

“ _ Obviously I was talking about Allison. Even if I thought you were a bitch, I’d not think that when you could hear it. Oh, and while we’re talking about that, what the  _ fuck  _ happened to you? Your thoughts shut off at one point. I thought you were dead.” _

She furrowed her brows, trying not to frown more. She could feel Luther and Allison staring at them, Luther with curiosity and Allison with something that felt closer to envy. 

“ _ I don’t know what happened. I took a fourth pill-“ _

_ “You  _ what?” 

“ _ I’m supposed to take them when I’m anxious. _ ”

He seemed to stab the needle into his skin, though why giving himself unnecessary pain felt like the solution to his problems was beyond her. 

“ _ Don’t you ever worry that you’re gonna overdose yourself on those things? _ ”

“ _ Four pills is hardly enough to overdose with, and why do you even care? _ ”

“ _ Are you seriously asking me why I care about you dying? Is this seriously what you are doing right now? _ ”

“ _ Why are you being such a dick? _ ”

He exhaled loudly, and Luther and Allison exchanged a glance. 

“Trouble in paradise?” 

Vanya glanced up at Diego. She was aware he was just trying to piss them off. She also was aware that Five was already pissed off. 

“Diego, please stop,” Vanya said, hating herself for the mousiness of her voice. 

He looked like he was about to reply, but then he saw the look Five gave him and closed his mouth. 

“Is Ben going to be okay?” she finally asked after the silence between all of them felt so tangible that she could reach out and touch it 

Five sighed. None of the others offered anything to her, so he answered her out loud. “He’s in bad shape, and will probably be in the infirmary a while. I’m certain he’ll make it though.” 

Diego said something then. “Yeah, and if Luther wasn’t such an idiot, none of us would be injured. Brilliant leadership by the way.” 

Vanya stiffened, and Five told her to come sit by him mentally. She didn’t listen, which she could tell irritated him further. Likely, he was trying to avoid her being injured in the crossfire, but she didn’t need his protection. 

“ _ Don’t be an idiot, Vanya. And you do need my protection.” _

She did not reply, focusing instead on the argument that everyone could hear. 

“I got you out of there eventually,” Luther said.

“Oh, right! After Five forced you to! He may be an arrogant prick, but at least he’s not the reason Ben might die.” 

She felt her stomach turn. Ben couldn’t die. Five wouldn’t lie to her about that. He wouldn’t say it would be fine unless he was certain it would, would he?

“ _ He’ll be fine.”  _

She could tell that the thick layer of doubt towards him in her thoughts made him even more pissed, but she couldn’t just ignore the worry she was feeling. She almost wished she could take a fifth pill at this point.

“Will Ben actually die?” she asked Luther, looking to him as the leader. Luther was also least likely to snap at her right now, with how furious Five was getting. 

Luther offered Vanya an awkward smile. She knew he likely leaned towards neutrality as far as she went, though Allison hating her wasn’t in her favor. “He should be okay, Vanya. Don’t worry.”

“As I said already,” Five cut in, a bite to his voice that she wasn’t certain if all of them could hear or not. Based on the uncomfortable way Luther shifted, yes. 

“We wouldn’t even be having this discussion if Luther could actually lead us,” Diego snapped. 

“Diego, shut the fuck up, please,” Five said. 

Diego was about to yell at him, but then everybody was quiet. She looked over and saw why. 

Klaus did not even appear under the influence of anything as he sat down with them, staring blankly ahead. There was a redness to his eyes, but they all knew it was from crying. 

“Are you okay, Klaus?” Allison asked, surprising everyone. She had been quiet for the Luther and Diego argument. Although, come to think of it, Allison and Klaus had never had animosity towards one another to Vanya’s knowledge, which she assumed was just what friendship meant here. 

“He’s gonna be okay unless he gets worse,” he said. “But it doesn’t look likely that he will. Still, any of us could easily die. I’m leaving and taking Ben with me the second he’s able to.”

This made all of them turn their heads. She could feel Five’s eyes on her, but she wouldn’t meet his gaze. She knew he was going to tell her the same thing later.

“Why not just wait until we can move out easier? Why bother? What if he looks for you?”

Allison glared at her. “Like you’d understand.”

Luther frowned. “Understand what? Don’t you guys want to be here?” 

“No, Golden Boy, we don’t,” Diego snapped. “And of course you don’t get it, Vanya, you’re not in danger living here.” 

Five looked incredibly pissed to be doing so, but he defended her anyways. “None of us have it easy here, Diego. Vanya is allowed to be concerned about Klaus leaving. Honestly, though, he should leave. We should all have left a long time ago.”

Vanya glanced down at her hands, even her soulmate clearly didn’t agree with her. Even though he had a front seat ticket and VIP pass to her nightmares of a scenario in which they did run away and he found them and made their lives worse. 

“There’s no point, he’ll find us,” she said, her voice even more quiet than usual. 

Klaus just slumped forward, head on his hands. They were all quiet, choosing for once not to argue with one another when Ben was in critical condition. 

***

The tension between Vanya and himself was uncomfortable, and after arguing, even if not horribly, they were being overly polite to one another. It felt unlike their usual dynamic at all, and he felt a headache starting to form as they walked to their rooms. He kept his mind carefully focused on not asking if she still wanted to sleep together tonight. They slept in separate beds occasionally, but it was rare. He knew Reginald wouldn’t say anything because if he tried to separate them at all, he would be out as quickly as it took to pack a bag. There was also the more sinister reason, which he refused to think about. 

The day had gone by too slow, neither of them speaking to one another but occasionally flashes of each other’s thoughts leaking through. They studiously avoided talking about the argument. He knew the only reason he was so upset was that everything was going on, on top of his concern for her. He also knew that she was aware of that because they couldn’t keep any of their thoughts private. 

“I’ve got to practice some more, but I’m going to bed afterwards,” Vanya said as they reached her door. Did that mean she wanted him to go to her room or she wanted him to not be near her? He couldn’t tell, and he was forcing his thoughts to not give away his uncertainty. He didn’t want her to see it if she just was going to get mad about it anyway. 

“I’ll be working on my equations, I’ll try to be quiet,” he said, moving away from her. He wanted to kiss her or hug her or something to say goodnight, but he didn’t try to invade her space. They didn’t have enough space anyways, he could at least give her what he was capable of. 

He moved to turn away, but he stopped abruptly when he heard her whisper his name. 

He didn’t turn around but he didn’t leave either, giving her the opportunity to choose how this progressed. 

She grabbed the shoulder that hadn’t been injured before and turned him around. He glanced down at her. 

What she did next, he was not expecting. Mainly because she did not know what she was about to do next already. 

Their lips crashed into each other at the same instance, and she muttered against his lips to take her to his room. He jumped them there immediately, both of them landing on his bed at the same instant. She tapped his shirt, and he pulled it off. 

She groaned as one of his hands reached up her skirt, the other was aiding her in taking her own shirt off. 

As they were entangled with one another, thoughts running wild, the bond was as sharp as when they tried to see one another’s minds. Because of it, as his fingers ran against the seams of her underwear, he felt her pleasure as easily as if it were her own. 

“Fuck,” he groaned, and she found a way in their position to where she could grind against him. Her mind became delightfully vulgar as she reached down between them to palm him through his painfully tight pants. 

“ _ Be quiet. _ ”

He almost laughed out loud at that, he imagined the others knew damn well what they were doing even if they didn’t make noise. Any semblance of an argument always involved them making up, and he was pretty certain they were aware how that looked. 

Pulling off his pants and pulling up her skirt, he made a point to brush against her underwear again. She made a strangled noise in response.

“ _ Thought we were supposed to be quiet.”  _

Her eyes narrowed, but as he had already shoved her panties down enough to where they were out of the way and put his mouth to her, she didn’t say anything. 

He was just kissing along her thighs that she stiffened, and he pulled back immediately.

“ _ Did I do something wrong? Did I hurt you?” _

She shook her head, and he raised his brows, nodding for her to continue. She grabbed the blanket from his bed, covering their partially naked bodies. 

“I feel bad doing this when Ben is in the infirmary,” she whispered, moving them to the position they usually fell asleep in. 

He saw the redness of her cheeks, and he understood. 

“ _ Well, I don’t want you to feel bad, let’s stop. _ ”

Her face was so grateful that he felt that pang he always felt when Vanya doubted him. He would never force her to do anything she didn’t. Did she really think that low of him?

He pushed her head to his chest. 

“ _ Do you want to borrow something more comfortable?” _

She glanced up at him.

“ _ Do you mind if I sleep naked? _ ”

Jesus Christ. He was going to die, but that’s fine. He nodded weakly. She undressed fully, not moving from under the covers at all. 

“ _ Can I touch you? _ ”

He groaned, “We’re touching now, aren’t we?” 

She giggled, and, fuck, that was not helping him. 

“Didn’t you just ask if we could stop?” he asked. 

“ _ I changed my mind. _ ”

“ _ You’re actually going to kill me. I might actually die tonight.” _

_ “Be quiet.” _

_ “No one else can hear us.”  _

Her fingers pushed his boxers down, mouth finding him instantly. At the sound of his intake of breath and grunt of her name, he heard her voice again. 

“ _ Now they can. _ ”

She closed her mouth, taking him in only about halfway. Her hands reached down to do the rest of the work. His hips moved against her face, his hands knotting in her hair. For a few seconds they were quiet.

“ _ Vanya _ .”

“ _ I sometimes like hearing you say my name more in my head. I like knowing that I’m yours.”  _

_ “Vanya. Fuck, yes, Vanya, you’re mine.”  _

She made a small noise as she heard him say it, reaching in between her legs to touch herself as well. At the sight of her face screwing up, he was nearly done for. 

“ _ You’re mine, Vanya.” _

After she had swallowed, he pulled her on top of him, kissing her deeply. He moved his hand between the two of them, slipping two fingers inside of her without any struggle. He moved his fingers against her wet heat, curling and uncurling, before he rubbed his thumb roughly against her clit. She sat up a bit, grinding against his hand easier. 

“ _ You’re mine.” _

It was her who said it this time, and he grinned up at her. He moved his fingers quicker and harder, and she was practically bouncing on him by that point. 

When she stopped moving, vision going white for both of them for a few seconds, he spoke through the bond again. 

“ _ I’m yours, Vanya.”  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter should be here by tomorrow! I think my goal is 7-10 chapters, but I haven’t decided at this point. Do you guys want me to publish other soulmate AUs while I write this one or would you prefer me to finish this one up before I work on another?


	3. There’s an old voice in my head that’s holding me back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five looks back on his earliest memories of the bond and the fears of what it would mean for him and Vanya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is no smut in this chapter technically, but there is mention of a sex dream. Also, I have looked at my notes for this, and I’ve decided to make nine more chapters for a total of twelve chapters. I think that I could easily have it done before season 2 drops at the rate I’m writing! 
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who is commenting, I will reply to all of the comments after posting this chapter! You guys are really motivating me to write these chapters, so thank you!!!

Unlike most kids, Five did not know what soulmates were. He had gone his first few years not understanding why Vanya’s voice was in his head. He never tried to ask anybody about it because he was afraid he would get in trouble for some reason. By the time their powers manifested, he thought his power was reading thoughts. 

He didn’t know who told him that she was his soulmate, but he did not figure it out on his own. He was aware at some point someone would have told him, but it was so long ago that he did not remember anymore. 

What he remembers was the stretch of time after he first found out. 

He had been angry at Vanya first. He had thought she had somehow forced it to happen, but when Ben told him that Klaus was his (after making him swear to secrecy), he realized there was no way she could have controlled it. 

When he couldn’t be angry at her, he was angry at the universe. Five did not want to belong to anybody, did not want to be expected to follow another set of rules. He saw Vanya as a friend, sure, but he did not want her life to ever be entwined with his. 

There was a stretch of time when he ignored Vanya completely. He didn’t remember even seeing her that much. The most disturbing part was that he does not remember hearing her thoughts at that point, something of an anomaly, considering her thoughts had been combined with his own as long as he could remember. 

He found out through Pogo at one point that Vanya had gotten very sick. He had been willing to tell her that he wanted to be friends again, asking about her through Pogo. Pogo told him that he may not see her for a little while. At the time, he deduced the reason he didn’t hear her thoughts was due to the illness. Oddly, when she got sick now, he could still hear them. 

She came back to their lives after she got better, though frankly Five felt she still seemed sick, with her wide vacant eyes watching him. Her thoughts came back pretty soon after, and he told her that he was glad she was not sick later. 

He didn’t resent the bond after that for a few years, not minding Vanya’s thoughts and even using them to play games with her when they were bored.

His resentment came again when the Umbrella Academy was starting to form. Reginald forced them to train constantly. Reginald had known they were soulmates for a while, probably having catalogued it in his journals. When Five snapped at him one time during training, the next day he saw Vanya’s apprehensive face looking up at him. 

He had held his tongue from saying something stupid in front of Reginald, knowing that she would endure the punishment. Instead, he had simply asked what he was supposed to do. 

Reginald had smiled before explaining that he was to use the combat techniques they learned the day before (the ones he had snapped about actually) on her. Five had widened his eyes, asking him the very obvious question “what if I hurt her?” 

Reginald had simply said, “Then she would be hurt.” 

Five’s stomach had twisted, and he turned to her wide eyed gaze. She was begging him to just do it through the bond, she didn’t want him to get in trouble. 

Her caring about whether or not he would be in trouble more than she cared about the obvious fear of getting hurt was when he realized that even if he had not been in love with her, she was in love with him. In that dazed realization, he used his power to push forward right up to her. He executed the techniques flawlessly, but, more importantly, without hurting her at all. As he had held her down, both of them breathing heavily, he kept thinking “thank you.” 

The resentment would come later that night. His soulmate trusted him, loved him even, and he was going to only put her life in danger. If he did something wrong, she was punished. If he had an enemy, she would have an enemy too. He did not want her to hate him ever, but he especially never wanted her to hate him after he realized what it felt like for her to love him. 

The resentment grew as the Academy became public. When Reginald introduced the Academy to the world, and he realized he would acquire enemies, ones willing to hurt him or enact revenge upon him, he hated that bond. She was once again failed by him, and he hated that bond for making her want anything from him. 

It was during an interview that they were all asked about their soulmates, what they thought of them being superheroes. Luther had said his soulmate was perfectly okay with the concept, laughing easily. Diego had kept quiet, though he did often in interviews and interviewers were asked not to bother him if he did keep quiet due to his stutter. Allison had giggled and talked about how amazing her soulmate was, and Five had wanted to roll his eyes at the fact that she was so obvious. Klaus and Ben just said as generic of responses as they could, trying to get attention off themselves. 

Then the interviewer had asked Five what his soulmate thought. He had glared at her and said that she shouldn’t be so focused on a young teenager’s love life. 

The interviewer didn’t mention that when the magazine was published though, but at least Five had kept Vanya safe from scrutiny. 

Or at least he thought he did. Apparently, the first response to Five saying nothing of his soulmate was for multiple teenagers to claim that he was their soulmate. There were seventeen total people who gave so much evidence to how he was their soulmate that they got individual interviews. When all of them were proven liars (and to their soulmates, he assumed, total and complete assholes), interviewers constantly tried to get him to talk about his soulmate. Everyone wanted to know about it because he refused to talk about it.

Then, Allison, ruining it all one day out of boredom, had laughed and said, “He’s just embarrassed because they spend all their time communicating. It has to be hard when your soulmate is ordinary.” 

The purposeful jab at Vanya had landed its intent of pissing him off, but it also had prompted the interviewer to ask if Allison’s soulmate was also famous. 

She had sputtered, a blush growing on her cheeks. Five had smiled brightly, asking, “Yes, Allison, do tell them all about your soulmate.”

The next day in training, when Allison had bristled and yelled an insult about Vanya, still pissed from the day before, he had snapped, “At least Vanya’s bond is not ordinary like yours.” Allison, he knew, was jealous of the strength of Vanya and his bond. He had read enough on the biology of soulmates to know that Vanya and his bond was rare, but it had nothing to do with the strength of their bond. Still, pointing out something that he knew Allison was envious of Vanya for had landed its intent of pissing her off. The only problem was the sadness in Vanya’s eyes that night, the insecure thoughts floating through her head after he had said it.

He had tried to apologize over and over when he came to her room, but the more he did, the more upset she got. She tried to hide the thought that kept coming to her head, but she couldn’t keep it out very long. 

“ _ I’ll always be ordinary, he’ll always not be. The only reason I could be extraordinary is through him, and I don’t even know if he wants this. _ ”

The hardest part was that he didn’t know either. At one point, being in love with Vanya was a stronger feeling than despising the bond. He could not say when, but he knew that she probably knew when. It had made it all much easier then.

And then he wanted to time travel. Vanya was adamantly against it, thoughts turning frantic any moment he so much as picked up a piece of chalk. When he had almost ran away at thirteen, he would have left her to prove that he could do it, but then her thoughts had gone blank again. He remembered when she had gotten really sick as a kid, suddenly. What if she got sick again? What would his life look like without a soulmate? 

He had looked at her, but she was looking away from him. His vision had tunneled, but he backed down. He wouldn’t leave her. 

He was punished by Reginald for that day for months, but now every time he and Vanya fought, it went back to that day. He was still being punished, even though she clearly did not see it that way. He heard her thoughts enough to know that she thought that at any moment he would just choose to leave her. It was unfair, but he figured it was unfair to her that she had to hear about his annoyance for the bond frequently. 

They had no privacy, so they agreed to just not talk about it. 

Until they did. 

And it was often that they did. He planned ways they could run away often. When he found out Diego and Klaus had thought the same way earlier, he was taken aback. He had wanted to shout to Vanya, “See? They think it’s possible.” 

He wasn’t going to argue with her about it anymore. He was getting them the hell out of there, and she could see how successful they would be then. 

She made a noise in her sleep then, and he wondered if his thoughts had seeped into her dreams again. He quickly checked the surroundings in her dreams before he quickly realized what the noise had actually been for. 

Face flushed, he snapped back to his own reality. It felt wrong that he invaded her privacy that way. He was fully aware that she had been witness to his sex dreams for years, and that it wasn’t really a secret between them. Still, he shouldn’t have prodded at the bond like that. 

He couldn’t not think of the dream though. What they had been doing, how even though he knew it was a dream, he wanted to tell her it was a bad idea. They had an agreement that they were not going to do anything that could possibly get her pregnant until they were absolutely certain that Reginald had no legal right to any child they had. It was horrible, all things considered, that a small part of his resentment towards Reginald lie in not getting to fuck his soulmate. To be fair, he liked to think that any reason to hate Reginald was a good reason. 

When Vanya woke at the sunrise, Five realized he had inadvertently stayed up all night. 

“Why didn’t you sleep?” she said, sitting up. As the blankets dropped down and she seemed to remember she was naked, her face flushed and she grabbed the blanket. 

“I forgot,” he said. She laughed, tilting her head to kiss him. 

“ _ How can you forget to sleep?”  _

_ “How can you kiss me with morning breath?”  _

She pulled back, nearly falling over in her haste to get away from him. Because he was trying not to laugh, his mental apology didn’t do the trick. After she threw a pillow at his face, he did laugh, and she glared at him as she grabbed her clothes from the day before. 

“Are you going to wear those again? Don’t we get punished if we wear clothes twice?” he asked from the bed. They had a bit of time before they had to be at breakfast, and he had a very distinct talent of putting on clothes and making himself presentable in less than forty five seconds from having gone on early missions. 

She rolled her eyes, bending over and grabbing her bra which had landed on top of a pile of notebooks. “I don’t think that’s a thing, no.” 

“Oh, see, I thought the dress code _ was  _ that strict. In that case, you should leave your bra there.” 

“Why would you ever need my bra?” 

“Physics, of course.” He frowned at the boxers she threw on his face. “See, these are not necessary at all for my research.” 

“I didn’t realize Newton and Einstein didn’t wear underwear, makes their contributions to science much more scintillating.” 

“You know, I honestly wouldn’t put it past Isaac Newton. Did you know he licked mercury?” 

She frowned at him. “If you start licking random objects, I’m leaving you. You’re aware of this, right?”

“Why would you tease me about licking this early in the morning?” 

Vanya started looking around his room for another object to chuck at him. He checked his watch, resigning himself to getting ready and going downstairs and eating breakfast with the others. 

“We could get donuts instead,” Vanya told him, looking around for the brush she kept in there. His room was essentially treated as her own between them, and he technically had places for all of the things she kept in it, but she tended to forget his compulsive habits. He pointed her to the direction of the brush, and she beamed up at him gratefully. 

“How pissed do you think it will make him if we did?” he said, already going to where he hid some normal teenage clothes. 

She shrugged, “I don’t know. You could say that you wanted to take me to work.” 

Vanya, being without powers and not needing to do missions, had made an agreement with Reginald that she could work. It was a Sunday, so she technically could have a shift. Five knew that she had taken off when Ben had been hurt. 

“Won’t your manager think you’re lying if you do that?” he asked, though he did want some coffee. 

“Actually, she said to come by and get some breakfast on her if I can,” Vanya said, shrugging again. “We don’t have to go though.” 

He shook his head. “I want to, I just didn’t want you in trouble with your manager. You should probably borrow some clothes from me though, the uniform isn’t very inconspicuous, and I really might hit someone if I’m recognized.”

She nodded, and he quickly grabbed a pair of her jeans he kept in his room for occasions such as these and one of the smaller sweatshirts he owned that didn’t fit him that well anymore. He pulled on a similar outfit, glad that he would be getting coffee momentarily after not sleeping last night. 

Vanya glanced up at him, “Five, there’s something I want to talk to you about.” 

He glanced to where he suspected the camera was kept in his room. He switched quickly to speaking telepathically, knowing that whatever she needed to say should not have a witness. 

“ _ What is it? _ ”

“ _ You have to promise not to be mad. _ ”

“ _ Tell me the problem, and I’ll decide if I get mad. _ ”

He often worried about her, going to a normal school, having a normal job. It was always normal people that seemed to have the worst fates. When a guy had hit on her for a month at her school, never listening when she told the asshole to back off, and she had accidentally thought about it after successfully keeping it secret for quite a while, Vanya had yelled at him until he agreed to not hurt the guy. If the dude was at it again, he wouldn’t listen. 

“ _ That’s not the problem. It’s about me, actually. Or well, us, really. _ ”

He frowned.

“ _ What did you do that would make me mad at you? _ ”

***

Vanya glanced over to Five. She had asked if they could be out of the mansion when she told him, deciding he would undoubtedly be worse if they were inside it. Now that they were at Griddy’s, sitting at a booth, she projected into their consciousness what she had managed to keep quiet the day before.

Yesterday, while Ben was in the infirmary and Five and her were avoiding one another, she had been sent by Grace to go to Reginald’s office. Reginald had glanced up when she came over. 

“What is the status of your current mission?”

“Sir?” she asked, blinking dazedly. Maybe she really had taken too many meds and was in some sort of coma. 

Reginald narrowed his eyes, clearly debating his words. Finally, he said. “I must have forgotten to debrief you.” 

She shook a little, asking quickly for him to explain the mission. And when he did, the world tilted going out of focus. Her head was starting to fill with white noise again, something that happened at her most stressed moments. 

“Is the mission clear, Number Seven?” he asked, writing something down. She nodded, but she felt sick. She had to tell Five immediately, but she remembered his anger earlier. How he wanted to leave. They would be gone immediately, but Reginald would find them.

She tried studying Five now, he was sipping the coffee, eyes closed just a bit. 

“ _ Are you mad at me? _ ”

“ _ No, but didn’t we figure this was something that would happen eventually? _ ”

A wave of unsettled confusion hit her. Why did he not sound more shocked?

“ _ Why do you not sound more shocked? _ ”

He shrugged at that. She knew the other people in the restaurant could tell they were probably soulmates. It was more common for soulmates to communicate like Ben and Klaus, who could turn the bond on and off at will. Allison and Luther had the most common bond though, being able to hear each other maybe ten times at most a year. 

Five was studying a crack in the counter, and she felt confusion grow. 

“ _ Did you know already? _ ” 

He sighed. 

“ _ Can we not talk about this? _ ”

She studied his face. He was hiding something. 

“ _ Tell me. _ ”

Her mind, inadvertently, started thinking back to every time he had tried to hide information from her. And then she was remembering again, the fear she felt when she knew he would truly leave her for good. 

Five set the glass he was holding down, she could tell by the tension in his shoulders that he knew where her thoughts were. His fists clenched and unclenched in front of him. Finally, after a few beats of silence, he spoke. “It’s not fair when you do that.” 

“Do what?” she whispered, worried that other people might be looking over. She had the distinct feeling of being watched. 

“Like you aren’t at home?” he snapped, though this time it was under his breath. “And you know exactly what, Vanya. I cannot make a single mistake without you reminding me of every single mistake I’ve made.”

“It’s not my fault that I am a witness to every mistake you make,” she said. 

His back straightened, his annoyance clear for a split second. Then, she saw as he carefully settled his features into blankness. It was the same face he made when Reginald went on a self-righteous rant about the fate of the world. 

Something in her snapped at the coldness in his gaze. “Fine, you want to lie to me? Go ahead. But don’t act like I’m the villain because  _ you  _ fuck up and I get upset about it. I get that you wanted somebody else, somebody not ordinary or whatever, somebody who worships the ground you walk on and just agrees with everyone of your stupid decisions, but I’m not that. The universe fucked up there when it forced us together.” 

She had wanted to make the blank expression in his face go away, and she was successful. But now there was anger so clear that she was certain he was going to do something irrational. 

Instead, he only picked up his coffee again and downed it. There was a sense of finality in his look, matching the tone of his mind as his words projected.

“ _You’re going to pack when we get home. You are going to get everything ready in the next hour. We are going to leave immediately._ _And you are not to complain about it until I am certain that he cannot find us. Am I clear?_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! I will try to update as soon as possible!!


	4. Soon it will be over and buried with our past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five and Vanya prepare to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a spotify playlist for this story, which can be found at the following link
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0RMbnZHxYbhRKVXPggviKm?si=aoaooe6WThW9QJ_eOYLCrQ
> 
> I might make a moodboard and put it with the final chapter for the story, but I’m not certain.

Five learned when he was young that he could stop his soulmate from having nightmares. It meant for him, a lack of sleep, and, for her, happiness. He did not think his sleep mattered much when his best friend was happy. When she realized what he was doing, she told him that he was the best soulmate in the world and also that if he did not sleep for over three days he could develop auditory hallucinations. Vanya had had a very brief time when she was fascinated by psychology, and she told him that if he didn’t have a healthy sleep schedule, then she would find a new soulmate. 

Technically, soulmates are a no refund gift from the universe, so her threat was meaningless. At the time, her finding somebody else was so terrifying to him that he promised he would sleep better. They did find that when they slept next to each other though that her nightmares didn’t scare her as much. If she woke in the middle of the night, he would be there to protect her from any danger. 

When they were young, the bond just meant to them that they were best friends forever by the laws of the universe. They were not entirely wrong, he supposed. Many soulmates just stay friends all their lives, though it would be a betrayal if they got married to someone else. Five knew that some people refused to ever meet their soulmates and some people might not have one. 

He and Vanya were in love with one another. They did not say it all the time. Neither of them thought saying “I love you” frequently cheapened the words, but saying “I love you” was something that they barely ever heard. Most of the time, saying it to each other was an act of defiance against the coldness of their home. But there were times when Vanya was just in the fragile place between consciousness and unconsciousness that she would whisper into his shoulder that she loved him, that she thought loving him was the easiest thing she could ever do. There were times that she would whisper the sweetest things when they were fully awake, and he would be so grateful to have her as his soulmate. Vanya was never the problem, she would never  _ be  _ the problem. He knew she thought that’s why he didn’t want her as a soulmate, but Vanya was the only person he would ever  _ want  _ for a soulmate. He has never told her, but he knows that if she was not his soulmate and she was soulmates with someone else, he would still only want to be with her. He would choose her over any other soulmate that he had himself, which made him very grateful she was his soulmate because he doubted that she would find the sentiment charming. 

Vanya was the one to initiate their romantic relationship, actually. Five wanted to be with her, and Vanya wanted to be with him. That had been apparent in their thoughts of one another. One day though, Vanya had surprised him during training by asking him if he knew how kissing worked. He most certainly had not known, and when Diego had caught him trying to research and figure out how to do it right in the library, he didn’t hear the end of it for weeks. Vanya appreciated his research at least, saying she thought it was sweet.

When their bond had officially grown from platonic to romantic, he had started trying to get away her nightmares again. Somehow, the thought of her being scared affected him more as he got to that age. 

Vanya did not remember her dreams frequently, and when she had nightmares, only he truly knew. 

The problem was that her nightmares were nothing compared to what he knew Reginald was planning. She had been furious at him for not telling her about his so-called “mission” for them, but Reginald had not told her what would happen if she failed to complete it. Five imagined the reason for that was to ensure more fighting between them. Even if Vanya and Five belonged to one another by the universe, they belonged to Reginald by large stacks of cash given to mothers whose love had a very definite price.

Reginald constantly wanted to remind Five who was in control, who had more power. And Five thought he knew it when he used Vanya as a method of training him. He thought he knew it in the harsh punishments given to him for defying him. He even thought he knew it in Reginald practically forcing Five to sleep with Vanya so that he could perform experiments on a child that did not even yet exist.

And then Reginald told him that he would make Diego do the job if he couldn’t. 

Diego had a soulmate. Five knew Diego had a soulmate that he had heard exactly once, but he was not allowed to tell anybody ever. Diego’s soulmate was nobody they even knew yet, and Diego only told him because Five had found out by accident anyways. Diego had been trying to ask questions about soulmates to Grace, and Five had just been walking by. Five could figure out immediately that Grace would not understand any of what he was saying, and he told him that he would keep his secret quiet (yes, even from Vanya) if he wanted to talk. Diego did talk, asking him a bunch of questions that Five would have never usually had the patience to answer, but also he felt a little bad that Diego did not get to see his soulmate the way Five did. 

Diego would not want to do this to his soulmate, Five was certain. He was also certain why Diego would have agreed to it though. If Diego did what Reginald said, Reginald could make his life much easier. He rewarded blind loyalty, not good behavior. There was also the matter that Diego still blindly hoped that Reginald may be a father to him. Five had given up wanting the love of a parent a long time ago. He knew Diego claimed he did not care what Reginald wanted, but Five did not know how anybody could think a robot truly cared about them. Five did not think Grace was horrible or anything, but he figured the thought of her being a mother was akin to believing a toaster to be a mother. She was programmed to spy on them, make sure they didn’t die and ruin Reginald’s investment, and act enough like a loving mother that maybe Reginald’s investments would feel guilty for running away. 

Vanya had refused to speak to him when they came home, but he considered it a blessing more than anything. If she was quietly packing, it would be easier to get her out. He had explained to her through the bond the part about Diego as they made their journey to the mansion, and he was not certain if she was mad at him for not sharing the information or guilty for snapping at him when he tried to protect her. He did not begrudge Diego for Reginald being an ass, but he was a little confused that he would agree to something like it. But then he remembered Diego saying he wanted to run away, snapping at Vanya for  _ not  _ wanting to run away, and he realized that Diego was probably just as confused that Five hadn’t gotten her the Hell out of here yet. 

Five had tried, endlessly. And after she snapped at him, he felt like maybe she hated him just a little bit. He also realized that at one point that was his worst case scenario, but her being put in danger by Reginald was the worst case scenario. 

He could tell by looking through the bond very quickly that she had listened to him, even though she was pissed about it. He could see her packing as quickly as she could. He had had a bag ready for a few days now. At this point, he has decided he will not travel time, but he will travel far away from there. He had saved up enough money that they could get an apartment. Considering they would have to find a seedy place anyways, they’d be able to afford living in one until they could both find jobs.

“ _ We’re leaving in thirty minutes. _ ”

“ _ Five? _ ”

Her voice was apprehensive, and he felt his anger dissipate just a little.

“ _ Yes? _ ”

“ _ Can I go to the infirmary before we leave? _ ”

She wanted to say goodbye to Ben. Five sighed. 

“ _ Yes, but hurry. And don’t let anyone know what is about to happen, we need everyone to suspect for the first few hours or possibly the first day that we just went somewhere to be alone.”  _

“ _ Okay. _ ”

He was aware she was upset with him. He was also aware that she was probably just a little afraid because he was so pissed off. And, yes, he was pissed. But underneath it was the hurt at her mistrust for him. And underneath that was the complete fucking terror that she was going to be hurt by Reginald. 

He had wanted to run away a while. He had decided when he almost did at thirteen that he would only leave if she agreed to it. And, technically, she has not actually agreed to leave, but he can tell from the bond that she will be leaving with him. To be fair, he would have carried her out if he had had to. 

“ _ Vanya? _ ”

“ _ Yeah? _ ”

“ _ I’m sorry. _ ”

He almost laughed at the clear shock he could sense. But then her thoughts changed to Mozart’s 25th, and he realized she was trying to block out the bond. She had not forgiven him, and he didn’t know if she ever would. 

***

Vanya reached the doors to the infirmary without anybody finding her. It was when she went inside that she was certain someone would find her.

Except the only people in there were Klaus and Ben. They were not speaking out loud, but she recognized the way they were looking at each other the same way Five did when he was communicating. 

She walked over to them. Ben was still in awful shape, but he looked over when he saw her approaching. 

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” Klaus said. She stopped walking, searching around for the cameras. How did he know?

Klaus and Ben exchanged a glance before Ben told her, “We figured Five would have already insisted by this point.”

Vanya glanced down. “Shouldn’t my opinion matter?” She didn’t really know why she was asking Klaus and Ben. Ben was her friend, but she and Klaus rarely interacted ever. Ben was also probably closer to Five anyways since they were in the Academy together. 

“Vanya,” Ben said. “He’s doing the right thing by wanting you out of here. Do you really think he doesn’t care about your opinion? If that were the case, do you really think you two wouldn’t already be gone?”

Vanya felt a quick pang of guilt. Five would have taken them away years ago, but he didn’t because he respected her opinion. The only reason he was insisting now was because he cared. Her mind flashed to Diego’s face. He had been angry when she didn’t want to leave. No wonder why. 

“Do you guys think Reginald is going to find me?” she whispered.

They exchanged another glance. Klaus must have said something unproductive because Ben hit his arm. 

Finally, Klaus said, “Five would have the best chance of any of us in running away. He’s smart but he also has a power that specifically allows him to run away.”

Ben added, “And he wouldn’t do something that could put you in danger. But make sure to lie low as long as you can. Also, take buses rather than planes for super long travel.”

Vanya nodded. “Are you guys still planning on leaving?” 

Klaus grabbed Ben’s hand. Vanya wondered if they had had the same argument. 

“We’re going when I get better,” Ben said finally. “Vanya, be thankful you have Five, he’s trying to do what’s best for you both.”

Vanya nodded, and then she wondered if she was supposed to say she loved them. She wasn’t sure anybody she had said it to besides Five. Instead, she just said goodbye and rushed up to her room. 

Five was waiting there, hands wrapped around the straps of his backpack. He held out a hand and she walked over to him, looking around her room. It had always been smaller than the others. She found her bag, stuffed with civilian clothes, sheet music, and some toiletries. She knew that she was missing something important, but she dismissed the thought because it was clearly just there to make her uncertain. 

When her hand closed around his own, he laced their fingers together. She expected him to jump them immediately, but instead he stared at their entwined hands for a few moments. Finally, he spoke, out loud. The last words he would say before they ran from here. 

“I don’t care if you hate me, Vanya. I care that you are safe. I care that you are taken care of, and loved, and happy. Even if you hate me after this, I know that you will never be safe here. And I know nobody in this house will ever be happy. So, if you hate me for this, it will be worth it. Because you will be safe, taken care of, loved, and hopefully very happy wherever we go.”

She stared up at him, tears forming. They were about to leave everything they had ever known, and they had a chance to live a normal life. There had been so much fear before they got to this point. All the fighting about leaving was stupid. They should have gotten out of here immediately. She remembered Ben’s words, to be thankful for him. And she was. She was so happy that she had someone who cared about her this much, so grateful that he was her soulmate. 

“I could never hate you. And I’ll be happy because I’m with you. I’m sorry for fighting. I should have never doubted that we could do this. Everything will finally be okay.” 

The tears spilled to the floors of her childhood bedroom that she could finally leave. Her lips found his. 

“ _ I love you. _ ” 

They both thought it at the same time, smiling widely at one another. He tightened his grip on her, and she saw the blue light that meant he was about to jump. 

And then they vanished from everything they had ever known. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vanya: “Everything will finally be okay.”
> 
> Anybody who knows this is just the fourth chapter and knows how fanfiction works: 👀👀
> 
> New chapter will be out soon!


	5. And full of life and full of love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya and Five are on the run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is some smut in this chapter.

The first day away from their home was spent switching busses. Their goal was to find a rural town at least nine states away from their own. Vanya had never used any money from waitressing, and Five had a decent amount saved as well. They had enough for at least three months worth of rent, utilities, and food. 

Neither of them had spoken more than twenty words out loud by the time the Greyhound bus made a stop, and they were officially two states away from Reginald. Even the nervous mental conversation was scarcer than usual. When they got on another bus that was heading south, they realized they were two out of the four people on the bus. The driver seemed to not think anything of it, and the only other passenger smiled up at them. 

“You’re soulmates, aren’t you?” she said with a conspiratorial smile. Five stiffened, tightening his hold on her hand while she tried to subtly move behind him. 

“Oh, sorry,” the woman said. She was an old woman, and Vanya told him very quickly mentally that she probably wasn’t a threat, to which Five quickly replied “no shit.” The woman didn’t seem to notice them communicating.

“It’s no problem, it’s just usually people don’t seem to notice,” Vanya said, squeezing Five’s hand as they put their bags beside them instead of in a compartment. They settled across from the old woman. 

She smiled at them. “You just reminded me of my own, the way you were standing.” 

Five glanced around. “Where are they?” Vanya nearly hit him, clearly they were dead. He winced when he heard her line of thinking. 

The woman smiled, “He’s where I’m heading to actually.”

Five nodded. “Do you separate from each other often?”

She laughed. “Considering we’re married to other people, yes.” 

Vanya nearly dropped her jaw, but Five very subtly elbowed her. Not everybody thought of their soulmates romantically, but still. Usually it was because they thought of no one romantically, not that they were with someone else. 

“Oh, you must be confused,” the woman said. “We chose long ago not to be with one another, we’re much too incompatible. We’re good friends, but we don’t love each other that way, and I’m thankful for it. All we did was argue anyways.”

Maybe she was a threat, just not in the way anyone would have suspected. Vanya thought back to every time she and Five had argued in the past week alone. Would they find someone else and have to see each other fall in love with other people too? Call themselves friends? 

“ _ She’s talking to strangers on a  _ Greyhound _ , Vanya. We’ll be fine. _ ”

Her heart sped up, realizing that she could never have a doubt about their bond ever without him knowing. She knew about his doubts. The fact that they had no privacy had never even occurred to her much, just a fact of life. But Five’s resentment towards a soulmate bond made sense. 

They were still holding hands, close enough to one another that she could feel the second he stiffened his back. Her thoughts refused to slow down though, flashes of panic started ebbing through her system. 

“ _ It’s okay, Vanya, don’t worry. I’m not mad. It’s not your fault our bond is like this, just genetics. You don’t have to worry about upsetting me for thinking anything. _ ”

But she felt panicked. She kept remembering how much they fought and how they had just made up and then what if Reginald found them or one of them got hurt-

“Relax,” he said, softly enough to her that the woman in front of them would not hear. He glared at her, and she could hear him mentally griping about people minding their own business. 

She could not focus on that though because she was panicking so much. Her vision was starting to swim and her breathing felt either too fast or too slow or too shaky. Five squeezed her hand, trying to ask if she was okay. She nodded, searching through her bag for her medicine. 

She would have dropped the bag if Five had not caught it quickly.

“ _ Five, I don’t have my pills. _ ”

His eyes widened. 

“ _ What is the name of the prescription? _ ”

Her nose scrunched as she really thought about it.

“ _ Okay,”  _ it was odd to hear him trying to sound calm and reasonable in his mind when she could clearly see his panic if she looked just a little further. “ _ What was the prescription for exactly? _ ”

“ _ Anxiety? _ ”

His brow furrowed, and he bit his lip, thinking. 

“ _ Did you take it as needed or daily? _ ”

“ _ Both? _ ”

“ _ What does that mean? _ ”

“ _ I take it every day, but I take extra too if I need it. _ ”

“ _ Doesn’t that decrease the effectiveness for when you need it? _ ”

Vanya turned away her head from him, trying to convince herself that she wasn't experiencing a heart attack. Five asking her a million questions wasn’t gonna cure her current problems. 

“ _ Yeah, that’s true. Listen, follow my breathing. _ ”

He followed a clear pattern, the timing of his breaths perfectly consistent. Her brows raised. 

“ _ How do you even know how to do this? _ ”

He shrugged. “ _ Training for helping victims, I assume? I don’t know. _ ”

She kept following the breathing exercises, slowly growing tired. He gently rested her against him and told her to sleep. 

“Wild how the rain can just start and stop like that, huh?” the driver called out as she drifted asleep. Something about the statement unsettled her, but she was too tired to pinpoint exactly what. 

***

The soulmate bond did not involve feeling each other’s physical or emotional pain, per se, but it was clear when they were in pain. Five only truly felt what she felt when he purposefully went deeper. The only thing that really affected this, however, was when the feelings she felt were so strong that it affected the barrier. He knew that it likely had to do with their biology, some basic response for survival, but he did not often think of it because he was always preoccupied when he felt her emotions. Most commonly, he felt pleasure through the bond. When either of them had an orgasm, their bond went haywire and both of them were affected, something that was awful when they were younger and puberty had first struck. 

There were times when he felt pain through the bond, though. She most frequently felt emotional pain. When she panicked, he often would feel a wave of nausea wash over him. Most people couldn’t teleport to their soulmates the second that fear hit, so Five considered himself lucky there. He nearly killed Klaus when he had yelled about a “spider” in his bedroom next to her and he had to jump to her and help her calm down, shaky and sobbing. He imagined he would have been scared too in her position when people who had superhuman abilities were scared by something. He also knew that Klaus had seen a ghost at that moment, and he did not express his anger ever. 

It was rare that Vanya ever experienced anything that would cause much physical pain, really. He did know what period cramps felt like, though, and it made him much more sympathetic to the cause and helped her dutifully each month. Allison and Luther never knew what this was like because their consciousness was not entwined the same. Ben and Klaus did not have to worry about menstrual cramps, so, if their bond was one where they felt each other’s pain, they would not know. 

Vanya was in both physical and emotional pain right now. It was hard to decide where the pain came from- anxiety or the crushing headache. 

Eventually, he couldn’t take seeing her in pain anymore, and he found a motel for them. He carried her to the room, setting their bags down. 

“Do you think it will help to take a bath?” he asked, laying her down on the bed and brushing her bangs from her eyes. She didn’t respond, so he tried asking mentally. 

“ _ Five, what if I die? What if they’re not anxiety medicine, what if I take them for something other than anxiety? _ ”

Fuck! What if she did? He didn’t know what she had been so sick with when they were kids, but what if that’s why she took them? He didn’t remember her taking them before then. 

“ _ What did you mean when I got sick as a kid? _ ”

As she thought that, rain started slamming down against the roof of the motel hard enough that he almost jumped. He knew it had rained at one point today, but the sky had been completely clear as they went to this room. A prickling feeling of unsettlement hit him. 

Shaking his head quickly to refocus himself, he pondered what she said. How could she forget about that? His mind flicked back to a very old memory of Pogo telling him that Vanya could not talk to him because she was very sick. How it felt like ages before he could see her again. 

“What are you talking about?” Vanya said, sitting up. “I don’t remember that.” 

“We were young, but we weren’t so young you wouldn’t have remembered,” he replied, pursing his lips. He felt the feeling he had right before he had a breakthrough with his equations, but he had absolutely no idea why. He mentally ran through all of the theories he had been working through recently, but none of them made sense as to the current context.

Vanya’s lips quirked mood changing abruptly, and he noticed the rain had stopped completely. He figured it was likely just some weird part of the region and dismissed the worry he had felt before. 

“What did I miss?” he said, blinking down at her amused but fond expression. She laughed a bit, pulling him down on top of her very quickly. He landed ungracefully, so he shifted a bit to where she was just caged underneath him. One of her hands brushed his hair out of the way. 

“It’s just that I remembered when we were younger and you were always thinking of different equations and I got so annoyed because I had no idea what you were thinking of but you were thinking it so loud-“

“I didn’t realize I had ‘insult me’ written on my face, one sec, let me wash that off.”

She rolled her eyes, pulling him back down as he half-heartedly shifted like he was going to the sink. He fell back on top of her without complaint, letting her continue what she was saying. 

“One day, I asked you to explain to me this problem you were working on, and I had never felt so much joy through the bond from you until that moment. You were smiling so big, ranting about this problem that I probably wouldn’t even understand now and it hit me that I was just so happy to have you, how much I loved you,” her face had a softness as she talked about it. He leaned back to where he was laying down, and he pulled her to where she was resting against his chest. 

“Are you saying you realized you were in love with me because I tried to explain physics to you?” he said to her in return because he would never be able to pull off saying something so gentle and loving, but he very much enjoyed it.

Her hair tickled his neck and he felt the shaking of the bed as she giggled. “No, idiot,” she told him. 

“You’re sending me such mixed signals. First, you want to jump my bones because you think I’m so genius, second, you call me an idiot. The inconsistency wounds me,” he wondered if his face when he joked with her was similar to the happy look she had described. He hoped it was. 

She hit him, climbing over him so that she was now on his lap. “You’re the worst.”

“You  _ love  _ me,” he said as her thighs spread against either side of his hips. His hands slipped to her waist, gently holding her. 

“Technically, I think I said loved, with a ‘d.’ I could have easily changed my mind because you’re so damn arrogant,” she grumbled. 

His lips curled, “And  _ have  _ you changed your mind?”

She pretended to think about it, which she should have been fully aware would not work. 

“You know, maybe I wouldn’t be so arrogant if you didn’t always think such delightful thoughts about me,” he joked. “Also, while we’re discussing these carnal scenarios you’re thinking of-“

“Five!”

“All you had to do was  _ ask,  _ and we could be doing any number of things,” he told her. 

Her face turned a lovely shade of red that spread to her ears and neck. He wondered if he left a hickey against her neck whether or not it would contrast against that blush. 

Her eyes grew a dangerous glint, something that he barely ever got to see. It was a look of confidence that he imagined only he saw because she was only ever completely confident around him. 

She leaned into him, lips brushing against his ear. He would have shifted uncomfortably, but she ground her hips against him and he did not want to push his luck in the case that this was just a very vivid and exciting dream and he might wake up with too sudden of movements. 

Her breath was hot against his ear as she whispered, “And if I ask you to fuck me?” 

“Holy fuck, Vanya,” he groaned, before pulling her face to meet his as he pressed his lips to her own. His hand moved to her hair, bunching it up before pulling it just a little. She made a sinful noise, and he used his other hand to reach between them and stroke her through her jeans. 

A clap of thunder came then, and he frowned. “The rain had stopped before, right? It has come back forcefully twice in less than an hour. Isn’t that odd to you?”

Vanya’s nose wrinkled a bit as she glanced towards the sound of the thunder. He always liked the faces she made when she was deep in thought. She glanced back as he thought that before drawling out, “I ask you to fuck me and you’re asking about the weather?”

Which, yeah, that was an excellent point. He could focus on that any time, whereas Vanya and him fucking was a rare opportunity. But then he remembered why it was rare, and he nearly pushed her away. 

“We don’t have protection,” he said. “We can’t do anything more than we usually do, I’m sorry.” 

She smiled brightly, “Actually, I have some in my bag.”

“You thought to bring condoms but you forgot medicine that can barely live without?”

She frowned. “Actually, Klaus thought to get them. He constantly tells me about where they’re kept in gas stations, and he told me once about a time when he and Ben got something called a pleasure pack from a gas station bathroom-“

He placed a hand over her mouth. “Vanya, I love you, and I love that you thought to grab condoms, but I swear to god if I hear about Ben and Klaus’s gas station pleasure pack experience, I will never be able to have sex with you because I will have ended it all.”

She giggled, “I think they’re sweet.”

“They once tried to go down on each other during a mission, fun fact.”

“I retract my earlier statement. Who knew they had that much sex?” 

“Don’t you sleep right next to Klaus’s bedroom?” 

Her eyes widened. “That was  _ Ben  _ that night?”

“What did you think it was?” 

“Some sort of break-in to attack the Academy or something! I’m sorry, Five, but if you think for one second we’re trying anything they do, you’ve got another thing coming.” 

He rolled his eyes. “Where are the condoms?”

She leapt up, gracefully landing on her feet before pulling him to where her bag was. She searched in the front pocket a second before handing him a box.

He felt a wave of apprehension that he did not expect to feel. “Are you sure?” 

She pulled him down gently, pressing her lips to his own. 

Her arms stayed around his shoulders as she walked him backwards to the bed. She gave him a light shove to where he was laying on his back. Once she had him caged between her, she started kissing down his neck. 

Her hand patted his shirt, and he quickly stripped it off. After it was off, she started sucking hickeys against his chest, grinding against him as she did.

“ _ I can’t believe  _ you’re  _ the nervous one, isn’t that my job? _ ”

“ _ Can’t believe my soulmate subscribes to gender roles, how sad. _ ”

She snorted before reaching in between them to unbuckle his belt. There was a clanky noise as it hit the floor by the bed. He pulled off his jeans and boxers, hastily dropping them beside his belt. 

Instead of continuing the path south of her kisses, she moved upward until they were face to face again. She rolled over to where she was not on top of him, rather facing him like they had many, many nights of their lives when they would stay up with one another and plan what their life would look like when they had left the mansion. 

Her eyes were so soft as she stared at him, faces close enough that their noses touched. They finally had left, every night could be like this- them together and happy. 

She grinned as her hands closed around him, and he would have almost been offended by how amused she looked if he was not trying to focus on not completely embarrassing himself by whining. 

A smaller smile settled though as she kissed him again, hand moving at a leisurely pace. They had the rest of their lives together, they didn’t have to rush anything. 

“Fuck, I love you,” he said, voice already uneven. 

“I love you too.” Her hand sped up, and he realized she had to be feeling the pleasure coiling up in his stomach or else she wouldn’t be speeding up the process. 

They both groaned as her hands continued to touch him, and her hips moved against him, seeking friction. He rubbed over her jeans for her again, giving her a little more attention. She batted his hands away though, rubbing him harder. She ended up being the one to whine pretty soon, but he was too full of bliss to even make noise. As his eyes closed in pleasure, he could have sworn her eyes were glowing.

“Fuck,” he said. He opened his eyes, hands just reaching to touch her when he saw her stiff posture. He was certain her eyes were glowing now, but she closed them tightly, biting down on her lip hard.

  
  


“What happened?” he asked. And then he felt her pain, and he nearly gasped out loud. Everything was too loud, too bright. The rain was coming down hard again, and Five could feel her shaking. 

“It was better for a little bit,” she said, saying the words like they were an apology. Her face was turning ashen and she squeezed her eyes tighter. “Five, I don’t know what to do.”

The pain was unbearable, mainly because he could easily tell that she was trying to downplay it. But he could barely look at her without feeling the crushing pain. 

There was another clap of thunder, and then she stopped moving completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Sorry for that ending, but I’ll update soon!


	6. Some days I don’t know if I am wrong or right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya’s condition gets worse, and Five tries to decide what to do to save her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for last chapter’s abrupt ending and for taking a little longer to update, I was outlining other soulmate stories!

There was a time when Five wished he had no soulmate. There were points when he saw that thought as a betrayal to Vanya, and there were points when he thought the world had betrayed Vanya for giving him to her. 

When she faded out of consciousness, he felt like the world had betrayed him. His mind remembered Klaus holding Ben, nearly dead. His mind remembered any time he saw an elderly person alone, and he wondered what it would like to lose a soulmate. His mind remembered how she had to hear every doubt he had about their bond. His mind remembered her seriously asking if she would die. 

What were the pills for? 

How long had she been out? 

He grabbed clothes as he tried to formulate a plan. He could take her to an emergency room, have them check her out. What if the illness was connected to how they were born though? They couldn’t really help something like that.

A dull ache formed as he thought of the connection to the birth. It was just another puzzle piece with no connection.

There was a prickling at his consciousness, and he snapped his focus to Vanya. She opened her eyes, then shoved a hand over them.

“Five?” she asked weakly. 

“I’m here,” he said.

He felt a sharp twist in his stomach, and at the same time she thought, “ _ I don’t feel so good. _ ”

Before she got sick, he jumped a few times to grab her a trash can and pull her hair out of the way. When she was finished, he heard her whimper very softly.

“What do you think we need to do?” he asked, brushing her hair back. 

She had a thought very quickly that she tried to suppress, but he had already heard it as it came. His stomach twisted. 

“Do you really think… it would help?” he whispered this because he had never felt so broken. 

She shook her head furiously. “I know if we go back there, it will be the same. Even though we have no medical records or know anything, he’ll just use this as a way to control us again.”

“Vanya, I would go back if it meant that you were  _ safe _ ,” he said, grabbing her hand. “I could handle it if it meant that you were okay.” 

“We wouldn’t  _ be  _ okay, though, Five. If I died, he would treat it like it was a lesson in discipline. Like you were the one that killed me because you couldn’t stand being there.”

He thought of what she said. If she died, it would be his fault. 

“ _ No, it wouldn’t.” _

_ “I was the one who forced you to be here. You wouldn’t have gotten sick without the medicine.” _

Vanya grabbed his hand. “You were  _ protecting  _ me. There was no way you could have known, Five. I’m not mad at you.”

“You should be,” he said, looking at their entwined hands. The world gave him somebody just so he could fail her over and over and over again. Not even a cosmic joke at that point, a cosmic “fuck you.”

“Five-“

She stopped trying to reassure him though as she got sick again. He wondered vaguely if she would get dehydrated from vomiting so much. 

“If we’re not going back to him, we  _ will _ find a hospital at the very least,” he said. 

She looked like she wanted to protest, but he could sense how weak she felt and he just gave her a hard stare. 

“Fine,” she said weakly. 

They found a hospital by going to the hotel lobby and asking for the nearest hospital. They said they had stopped in this town because Vanya had a grandmother in the hospital close by (not true).They said they were from out of town (true), and it was an emergency (at this point, there is no way of knowing if that was true).

When they got the information, the lady at the desk gave them a small smile. She had a slight southern accent, which Five didn’t understand considering the region but didn’t ask about. “My son is here actually, and I noticed y’all came in on a cab. Would you want him to give you a ride? I wouldn’t want your grandmother to have to worry any longer than necessary.” 

Five thought for a few seconds before accepting her offer. When he did, Vanya gave him a sharp look which he ignored until they were sitting in the back of the lady’s son’s car. He called back for them to buckle up, and Vanya got a horrified expression on her face. 

_ “What?” _

_ “He could be a murderer, Five!” _

_ “I mean, technically speaking, I have killed people.”  _

Vanya gave him an incredulous look. 

_ “You already knew that! Why are you acting surprised?”  _

_ “He can easily murder us!” _

_ “I can easily teleport too, we’re good. Plus, he’s clearly driving us to the direction of a hospital!” _

_ “How do you even know that?”  _

_ “Did you not even listen to her directions?” _

She made a face at him. The guy called back, saying, “I guess y’all are soulmates?”

Five answered for her, mentally telling her that no, the guy was probably not some sort of soulmate hunter and that didn’t exist, “We are.”

“How long did y’all know?” he asked. “You seem pretty young!”

_ “He commented on how young we are, definitely a murderer!” _

_ “Or someone with basic observational skills.” _

“We’ve known since we met. We, uh, were sent by our mothers to this boarding school when we were very young.”

“I didn’t know that they had boarding schools before high school,” the man commented. “That’s nice that y’all met though. I’ve still never met my soulmate, but I hear him once every few years.”

_ “Oh my god, he’s gonna murder us because he never met his soulmate and wants revenge!” _

_ “He’s clearly not, and, again, soulmate hunters are not a type of serial killer. I think I would know that if they were.” _

“Is there a reason you guys haven’t met?” Five asked, trying to ignore Vanya’s tight claw like grip on his forearm. 

The man laughed at that. “We always get so excited to hear one another that we forget to even tell each other  _ where  _ to meet! I think it would be much more special if we met by fate though, a lot of people wait that way, I think. Let the universe actually bring them together. It seems like you two didn’t have to wait for it to bring you together, though.” 

Five smiled. “No, we didn’t.”

Vanya added, “And we don’t want to be separated.”

He subtly elbowed her ribs. 

The roads here seemed barely capable of having cars going forward. Five gripped Vanya’s arms as a semi truck started speeding towards them, it seemed like it was about to hit the side of their car. 

Several things happened at once. The man driving them swerved to the side, yelling “asshole!” at the driver. And then the semi rolled the other direction, seemingly propelled by no force at all. A heavy rain started to fall, lightning crashing close. The car Vanya and him nearly toppled over. Vanya’s eyes were glowing, and so was her skin. The driver hit his head against a window with such force that it broke. Vanya screamed, and it seemed like the world around them shook as she did. 

So many things were happening at once. He could see blood on Vanya from pieces of glass, but the more concerning thing was that as the glow of her eyes started to dull, she slumped over again. 

He didn’t know what to do. He had always prided himself on knowing so much, but he knew nothing at all. All his life that had happened previous to getting in this car, even gettingout of the mansion in general, he would later think of as before. 

All he knew was that he couldn’t lose her. And so he drew in energy, imagining the home that felt more like a prison, and looked once more at the man’s still body in front of him. He hadn’t even learned his name. The blue lights of his hands grew, bright as the glow of Vanya’s skin, he gripped her tight as possible, probably digging glass further into her but not lightening his grip, and he accepted his own failure as he jumped back to the only chance he had to keep her safe and the inevitable pain he would bring them for it. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thanks for reading!


	7. You’re gone, gone, gone away. I watched you disappear.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya finds out she has more power in her situation than she thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I keep the rate I’m going this will be done before season 2, which has motivated me to write as much as I can before then! :)

The first time Vanya woke, she recognized the noises of the infirmary. Ben and Five were arguing quietly somewhere to her left, and Grace kept saying that they needed to let her sleep. She felt groggy, and she noticed a couple of places on her skin that felt like they had been hurt. It had to be a dream though, she and Five were far away from the mansion. 

“Is she awake?” Five snapped at Grace, but Grace just chided him for talking too loud. Vanya tried to find his face, but it seemed like the room was suddenly too dark. She tried to say his name, but her mouth wouldn’t work. She tried mentally saying it, but it was like the bond had been cut in half. She thought she might have made some sort of noise, but then Grace was over her, smiling. 

And she was out cold again. 

***

“I don’t know if you hear me,” Five’s voice said, it felt like he was above her. Her eyelids felt so heavy that she could not open them, but she hoped that maybe the bond wasn’t closed shut for him and he knew she was listening in. 

“If you could hear me, giving some sort of indication would be nice,” he added. He didn’t know if she could hear him, then. 

“Alright, that’s fine. It hasn’t worked the other times either anyways. You shouldn’t be so stubborn about responding though if it’s because you’re mad.” His voice was soft as he spoke to her, affecting her almost more than if he had said these words through the bond.

His hand kept brushing her bangs from her forehead and they kept stubbornly going back. “I’ve always liked your hair, I don’t know if I ever told you that.”

He cleared his throat. “I understand, though. If you’re mad, I mean. It makes me want to scream that after us fighting for years about leaving, we came back so quickly. I think I can convince him to keep off the, uh, pregnancy talk for a few years. I don’t know how I will, but I promise that if you wake up, that won’t happen for as long as I can prevent it. But, Vanya, I think we might have to be here a while.”

And now he was crying, she felt a tear hit her neck. Her body betrayed her by not reacting at all. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to cry. God, you must be so afraid right now. Vanya, I don’t know what he did. Well, actually, I did. It’s suddenly very clear why he was so insistent for so long that you were never associated with the Academy. Well, at least one of his reasons is clear. I broke into your school records because I didn’t believe him, but did you know the birth certificate he had filed says that you’re only fifteen?”

He started breathing heavily, and she felt more tears fall against her skin. “He threatened to send you a boarding school to punish me. And I don’t know what is wrong with our bond, but we wouldn’t even be able to speak, Vanya. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but I just need you to wake up. Wake up and yell at me, wake up and punch me, wake up and hate me. I don’t care as long as you wake up. Please, just wake up. I just need to know you’re going to make it.”

Her body still would not move, and he did not try to hide his sobbing as she faded back to the silence of her dreams.

***

Ben was her next guest.

“Okay, listen, Vanya,” Ben said. “I’m sorry if you’re somehow aware of Five not being here and not getting to hear him cry about you, but I could not in good conscience let it go on any longer. He had to shower. His smell might have killed you, actually, so he should be grateful.”

There was the sound of a chair scooting. “I love Five, but he is insufferable. If he didn’t have you, I think he would be even worse. Do you want us to suffer through that? He might actually try to kill Reginald, do you know how chaotic that would be, Vanya? You cannot let him do that. Reginald would force us to hit him or he’d drug Five up so much that he had no powers or something, I don’t know if he could even do it, but I do not want to see Five high.”

Vanya wanted more than anything to tell Ben that she was fine, but she couldn’t. 

“Don’t be mad, but we’re trying to get Five to get a little sleep. It would probably be easier to teach a raccoon to do calculus instead of eating trash, but I think I could get Allison to rumor him to sleep and shower and stuff. He doesn’t seem capable of just listening. I might have given Allison a little cash to get him to shower just now, but we will keep that a secret. You probably would want your soulmate to have basic human hygiene, I think,” Ben was hiding the upset much better than Five had, but she knew he was upset. 

“Klaus, Diego, and I will take turns watching you when Five is asleep. Allison agreed to do necessary rumoring. Luther doesn’t seem to understand why everyone is so upset, but he still thinks Reginald is a good person or something.”

Ben sighed then. “Vanya, please wake up for him. I can’t imagine seeing Klaus like this. He’s already torn apart that he had to take you back here, but he saw no other choice.”

When she still didn’t move, he squeezed her shoulder. “I’ll be quiet, maybe it’s better you wake up when he’s here anyway.” 

***

She didn’t wake up when Five was there. Reginald hovered above her, and she felt like she had woken up from sleeping for years. Had it been years? 

“Number Seven, sit up,” Reginald commanded, and she found herself following the order, dazed. 

“You will be drugged again shortly. Until I am certain that Number Five will not try such tantrums and run away again, you will not have the privilege of your so-called ‘bond.’ Am I clear?”

“Yes,” she whispered, trying to look around her. It felt like she could only move her limbs a little, so she assumed she was still drugged, just enough that she would certainly hear him. 

“I have decided, after careful consideration, that your mission will continue and you will stay here. You will start once Number Five’s loyalty has been clear. If I suspect Number Five is to pull another childish stunt as he has, I will have Number Two step in for the mission’s completion.”

She wanted to protest, but she didn’t have the energy. The drugs were already starting to cloud her vision again. 

“And, Number Seven, remember how disloyalty led you here. I would hope that this would not happen again. Hiring that truck driver was another unnecessary task for me, and you are ordinary and not worth more work.”

She didn’t say anything back, letting him think the drugs wouldn’t allow it. He had to have debriefed Five and found out about the truck driver that way. Otherwise, Five or somebody else would be in the room. As the door closed behind him, she wanted to laugh. He didn’t have as much power as he claimed. He had to lie because Five and Vanya  _ could  _ have been successful. 

And they would be successful when they left again. 

***

Klaus was her next visitor, which did not surprise her as much as she would have expected. He was Ben’s soulmate, and Ben was both a friend to Five and herself. 

“Listen, I know you’re not dead because I would see you as a ghost, so you might as well stop trying to impersonate the dead,” he told her. A lighter flicked and she noticed a strong scent that was familiarly pungent. 

“Five has been even worse than usual. I hope that he tries to fight Reginald though, it would be at least entertaining. I imagine if Five had another power, he’d be locked up in some sort of weird dungeon. As it is, he can’t even be put in time out in his room.”

Klaus patted her head. “I think if you woke up, he wouldn’t be so annoying. That would be great for us, but it should also be motivation for you waking up. You would save us all from an apocalypse or just Five’s anger in general, which is worse than the apocalypse. It would be a heroic act, Vanya. So, like, wake up.”

She didn’t move, but she knew that she would once Reginald decided Five wouldn’t get her out. She really wished her connection would work, so she could tell him to stop being a hothead or else she couldn’t wake up.

“I should’ve figured you wouldn’t wake up. Well, in that case, I’m going to take a nap and pretend I was meditating when Five gets back. Don’t get murdered while I’m out, he’ll figure out I was lying.”

***

Five had been in her room many times, but she couldn’t figure out the pattern to know how many days had passed. 

He also had frequently read some of her favorite books to her, but he sometimes would stop in the middle and start talking. He had been reading a gothic story that he used to read to her when they were very young when there was the sound of him slamming the book shut. 

“This is stupid,” he snapped. “You are not gonna hear any of this anyways, there is not any reason I should be doing this. I don’t know why you refuse to wake up, but just wake up! It’s that simple! And, no, I don’t feel bad for yelling at you! You can’t even hear me! Mentally or otherwise!”

A grumble came to his voice now, “And if you  _ could  _ hear me, I’d tell you that I hate that we can’t read each other’s thoughts. I’d tell you that you were right for wanting this goddamn bond all along. I’d tell you you’re the best soulmate in the world like you used to tell me when we were young, and I’d tell you that you also were the greatest thing that ever happened to me. But you  _ can’t  _ hear that. And you can’t hear me say I love you and that I would do anything for the situation to be reversed and for me to be the one that can’t wake up. And you can’t hear me say that I will do anything for you and do whatever you want from me for the rest of our stupid lives if you just woke up. And you can’t hear me say I’m so fucking sorry for ever doubting the bond, for any time I was ever angry with you for whatever reason. And you can’t hear me say beg for your forgiveness in taking you back here, even after fighting with you for years. And you can’t hear me say that I’m going to try to be a good soldier to him in hopes that you won’t be punished too harshly when you do wake up.”

He sighed loudly. “And on the infinitesimal, impossibly minuscule chance that you  _ can  _ hear me, I love you. And, please, just wake up.” 

But she couldn’t. Not until Reginald decided she could. 

***

Diego did not like to speak during his “shifts.” If he did, he mostly just took it as an opportunity to bitch about Luther without anybody interrupting. 

He spoke now. 

“Vanya, l-listen,” his stutter only got bad when he was upset. “I’m n-n-not going to do what Reginald says. And he c-c-can’t force me to if I’m g-gone. I know you can’t t-tell anybody about this, and so I’m telling you n-now.”

“I’m l-leaving t-t-tonight.” He breathed jaggedly. He seemed to be clearing his thoughts, and then he said without his stutter, “And you will be safe from at least that.” 

If Vanya could speak, she would say she was proud. As it was, she couldn’t even say goodbye. But she would one day see him again, she was pretty certain. 

***

Five started giving her the “silent treatment.” He would stomp into the infirmary, sigh  _ very  _ loudly, and then grumble under his breath loud enough that she could catch the phrases he was saying. Clearly, he wanted the message of silence to be loud and clear.

He also wasn’t even capable of doing this for very long periods of time, and he broke down every time he was in the infirmary. Right on schedule, he cleared his throat. 

After the requisite silence that followed him clearing his throat, he said, “I don’t know how long I’ve loved you.”

She wanted to say she loved him too, but Reginald would not let her wake quite yet. 

“Isn’t that weird? Most people know when they fall in love with someone, right?” he asked, he started playing with her fingers. It was a habit he had had for years, always playing with her fingers when he was stressed. 

“I don’t know when it happened. Maybe you know, could pinpoint a date for me. It could be an anniversary we celebrate, if you really wanted.”

His sigh was sad, but he had already ranted about how he was not going to cry anymore one of the most recent visits. “We could live a normal life, if you asked. I’d risk it and run away again, get the meds you need. I guess there’s an IV version, since you can’t swallow anything, so that might narrow it down. We could hide in another country, or wherever you wanted. I didn’t tell you, but I’ve looked at a few colleges’ programs for physics that also have music programs. We could go to one together, and I could tutor people and you could teach music lessons.”

He reached over, brushing her hair with his hand. “We could get married, have a few dogs or cats before we ever even thought of kids. We could let the others visit, even though they’re so annoying right now. Well, everyone but Diego. When you wake up, he won’t be here. Don’t try to worry about it too much, maybe he found his soulmate when he got away. He also put a little less pressure off us, which is good.” 

“I miss you, you know?” Even though she couldn’t see anything, she heard the smile in his voice. “You’re going to hear me bitch about this so much when you wake up. But I’ll be happy. I’ll be so happy. And I won’t have to be rumored by Allison to shower again, which, by the way, I  _ would  _ have done. I just didn’t want you to be alone when you woke up.”

“You know how I said that I would try to be less of an ass to Reginald? I have been pretty successful, I think. Maybe he’ll see this loyalty and not force you to go to boarding school or make you restart that heinous ‘mission’ again. I just used quotation marks, by the way, because we both know he just wants to force you to have children for his own gain.”

His voice faded out for a bit, and she thought he had fallen asleep. And then he spoke again, very softly, “I hope you’re not mad at me for this, but I want to run away again, Vanya. I want to get you out of here. I have a plan that is not ideal by any means, but I am certain will work. When you wake up, I will be ready to get you away from here, but only if you say you want to, okay?” 

He lifted her hand, squeezed it. “You just gotta wake up and tell me.”

*** 

Allison coming to the infirmary was probably the most surprising. The first chunk of time, she ignored her.

Finally, she said, “I had to rumor Five to go to his room and sleep without knowing exactly who would be here to watch you. So, you better tell him to back off if he tries to attack. Because I’m about to do something that could get me much worse punishment than whatever punishment Five is ignoring right now. And you better appreciate it.”

Vanya could sense Allison preparing for a dramatic speech. And she was proven right pretty quickly. “ _ Before _ I save you from staying in this infirmary until you’re old and graying of hair, I am going to explain  _ why.  _ One, Luther. I know that if I saw him like this, I would have been worse than Five, and he has been pretty awful. Two, you and Five running away will maybe make Luther realize why we should. And I want the two of us to leave without rumoring him. Lastly, and if you tell anyone this, I will rumor you to go into a coma until you are old and graying of hair, this is partially my fault. My original rumor years ago helped speed up the process, but I was really young, Vanya. And I regret it now, and that’s the only apology I want to give yet because I am not even certain you hear me. But I’m tired of this house, Vanya, and I’m ready to leave. And I think you knowing the truth is the only way that will certainly happen.”

Allison didn’t speak for a moment, and Vanya could sense that she was truly nervous. 

And then she did speak. 

“I heard a rumor that you woke up and remembered.”

Vanya’s eyes snapped open, and she didn’t even realize she was about to scream until Allison shoved a hand against her mouth, stifling it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! We have officially passed the halfway point! I have outlined four other stories for the soulmate AUs, and I am also finishing up another story completely that will be a really long E rated one-shot. My goal is to have this and the one-shot at least done by season 2! We’ll see if it works! 🙏🏻


	8. All that’s left is a ghost of you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five and Vanya are reunited; Vanya tries to explain her powers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended up being shorter than I expected, but the story is now two thirds done!

Five awoke to Allison, glaring over him. He hastily moved back, blinking away his dream. “What are you doing here?” he snapped. 

She rolled her eyes before stepping away, and then Five’s heart stuttered. 

Allison groaned, “I’m leaving. I don’t want to see your happy reunion.”

Five tried speaking through the bond, but it still felt like there was a layer of static. Once Allison had left his room, he quickly stood up from his bed and nearly fell over in his haste when he walked the few steps to Vanya. As his arms closed around her, he noticed the stiff way she was standing.

“What happened?” he asked. When she didn’t respond, he pulled back a little but kept his arms around her. “Vanya?”

She drew in a shaky breath. “First of all, don’t be mad at Allison. If she didn’t help, I’d still be in the infirmary. So, before I tell you anything, agree that you won’t put any blame on Allison.” 

His brows drew together, but he would agree to anything Vanya asked at this moment. He nodded for her to continue, and she closed her eyes, inhaling. 

“Do you want to sit down?” he asked, gesturing to his bed. She quickly nodded, and she sat down heavily beside him, holding his hand. 

When she still didn’t explain, he asked if there was anything that she needed that might help. 

“Did he die?” she blurted. 

“Reginald?” he asked, confused. 

“No,” she said, she picked at a thread on her pajamas. “When we ran away?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“When we ran away, the guy that was driving us to the hospital before we crashed, did he die?” 

His heart sank as he realized what she was talking about. He had not thought of the guy at all in the month that Vanya had been out. Now that he did remember, he did not want to say that he left him there because he was not proud of it, but Vanya was asking. 

Still, it was hard to say. “Well, uh-“ he cleared his throat. If this had been anybody else, he would have lied. He technically could, since their bond was not seeming to work at the moment. But this was Vanya, and he could not let some of the first words he spoke to her that he was certain she would hear in a month to be lies. “Yes, he likely died. I am not certain because I got out of there as quickly as I could to get you back. I would have taken him to a hospital, but I was pretty certain he was already dead, and I didn’t know if I would even have been able to get us back. I made the decision to leave and get you to safety, and, yeah, I’d make the decision again.” 

Tears filled her eyes, and he didn’t dare interrupt her, waiting patiently for her to speak. “Five, I think I killed him.” 

Quickly, hoping that survivor guilt hadn’t already set in though he assumed it had, he told her, “Vanya, that’s impossible. The weather was acting so strange that night, the truck driver was already speeding and the rain happening so quickly likely made him struggle to see us. And the guy who was driving us was just trying to get out of the way as quickly as he could, and he wrecked us.” 

“We don’t even know his name,” she whispered. 

“You  _ didn’t  _ kill him, you can’t blame yourself for that,” he implored. 

“Except I did.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but she cut him off before he could. “Five, I have powers.” 

“What?” 

“Really think back- the glowing skin, the weather that kept changing.”

He opened his mouth and then shut it. She had a point, it made sense. He had always thought it was strange that she didn’t have powers when all the others did. 

“I- how did you find out?” 

He could feel her heartbeat against her wrist. Desperately, he wanted to hear her thoughts, so she didn’t have to say whatever she clearly did not want to. 

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” he said, squeezing her hand. “I’m just glad you’re okay. I can’t believe I wasn’t there when you woke up.”

“Five, we have to leave,” she told him, abrupt. 

“I actually had an idea for how, but you’re not going to like it.”

She nodded, “We can’t until our bond is back, and that won’t happen until the drugs are out of my system.”

He frowned at her. “You need that medicine, Vanya.”

“He was drugging me to suppress the powers and the bond,” she told him, voice soft. Five thought of all the cameras that were in there, wishing the bond was still there. 

And he was a little worried for her too. “Vanya, you got sick when the pills weren’t there. You need them.”

“I’m not taking them, and you said when I was out you would do what I asked. This is what I am asking.” 

He felt his ears heat as they likely turned pink. “You heard what I said while you were out?” 

She frowned, “Not the point.”

“Right, yes, you’re right,” he tried to get his face to go back to normal, but it wouldn’t budge. “But you’re certain? Do you even know for sure that the medicine is affecting the powers and the bond?”

“Well, first of all, Reginald pretty much said that to me when he came to my room and told me his plans, and he said that he would keep me unconscious until you ‘proved your loyalty.’”

She was going to say more, but he was horrified. “You could have been awake earlier if it weren’t for me?” 

She frowned, “Five, you cannot blame yourself for Reginald being this way. Besides, Allison rumored me to wake up. But that’s not the point. Once the medicine leaves my system, we have to get out. And I need to find a way to control them.”

“All- never mind... We can get your powers under control, but Vanya I don’t think you were responsible for the man who drove us. You can’t blame yourself for that.”

She looked away from his gaze. “I was so afraid. And I may not have caused the wrecks, but I’m pretty certain I caused the weather changing at least. That man will never meet his soulmate, Five.”

His stomach hurt. He could understand her pain, especially if it was uncertain what her involvement was. And then he thought about all the missions he had done for Reginald. Many of them were awful people, but likely some of them had soulmates. There was also the fact that there was no way of knowing which people were bad and which were just an inconvenience to Reginald’s agenda. 

“I’m going to get you out of here,” he said. He wondered if the shame in his stomach would still be there if he could share it with her. “Vanya, I’m sorry I didn’t figure it out-“

“Don’t be!” she nearly shouted. She quieted herself before continuing, “Five, you couldn’t have known.”

“I should have known, Vanya. I’m not an idiot, and I kept seeing things that didn’t add up and I didn’t even bother trying to connect them. I was just so worried about you…” he trailed off. “Vanya, you can’t be here anymore. You have to get out immediately. I can’t risk you being here any longer.” 

“We’ll get out as soon as our bond is back,” she told him. “It’ll be okay.”

He wasn’t going to budge there. Plus, his plan was going to depend on the bond not working. She wouldn’t agree to what he was planning, but it was necessary.  


  
“You’re going to be okay,” he said. “I’m going to make sure of it.” 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and also thank you so much for all the support I’ve gotten for this story! Your comments and kudos mean so much to me, you’re all so kind and are really motivating me to get these chapters out as quickly as I can!!


	9. Now we’re torn, torn, torn apart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five and Vanya confront Reginald.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s technically smut in this chapter, but there is not much detail to it. There will be more detail in the chapter after, though.

Five and Vanya stayed up all night talking. She wanted to kiss him (well, more than that), but she could not shake the feeling that there were words unsaid between them. 

It was her fault because she had not told him everything. But she could not think of the imprisonment, the fear she felt so young. And she could not bear telling them to her soulmate, knowing that he had absolutely no idea. She thought Five might actually crack if he knew that she had been locked up. She thought she might crack, thinking of it. 

Keeping something from him was a new feeling, and it was because she was keeping information from him that she felt he was hiding information from her. She couldn’t help but wonder if his reason for not initiating besides a few chaste kisses or cuddling was the same as hers. 

“Should you get to sleep before tomorrow?” she asked him. “I don’t want to sleep for a bit… I keep thinking if I do it will all have been a dream, and I’ll still be in that infirmary.”

“Then I’ll stay up with you,” he said, smiling gently. Why did his gaze feel so far away?

“Are you afraid of what will happen when he knows that I’m awake?” she asked, burrowing into his chest. She didn’t want him to notice that her thinking was somewhere else too. A very specific place, hidden in this manor, that Five did not know of. 

“You won’t be here long,” he said calmly. 

“You’re right,” she said. She thought of screaming, begging for anyone to help her. It was the first time she ever didn’t hear Five’s voice there, it felt when she was a kid that Five could not be in any of her nightmares. She knew now that nightmares were most terrifying when the person you love was just as powerless as you. 

“Did you mean it when you said we could go to college together? And get dogs? And you know…”

He cleared this throat. “Yeah, there’s a lot of colleges I think you’d like, and you could have a dog for sure.”

“And the other part you mentioned?” she giggled at this, feeling the tension leave her. She had plenty of time to tell him, and they could get through this when they were finally gone. Plus, Five trying to not mention how he mentioned marriage was endearing. 

“Which part?”

She grinned. “Us getting married, of course. Do you already have the flowers planned? Because I find myself partial to peonies.”

He cleared his throat again. “Do you remember that woman on the bus?”

Her brows furrowed. “The one who told us about marrying someone other than her soulmate? That was weird to me too.”

“I was actually just gonna ask,” he seemed to weigh his words. “Do you think you could ever do that? Be with someone else?”

She laughed, “You got a girlfriend while I was knocked out, Five?”

She could sense him thinking, not through a bond but because it was Five. “I just wanted to know that you could last without me.”

“We don’t have to worry about that, Five. We  _ are  _ together, and pretty soon we are going to be able to be out of here and go to college and adopt dogs and get married. And sex! We will finally get to do that so soon, and I for one cannot wait,” she looked up at him so she could flash him a smile. 

“But I’m not the only thing in your life, right?” he pressed. 

“Of course not, there’s my violin and Ben and books and I think Allison and Klaus might pretty soon be my friends too, which I’m very excited about. You  _ are _ my favorite thing though,” she leaned over to kiss him. He returned it, though it was a little half-hearted.

“Why are you being weird?” she said when their lips separated but their foreheads stayed pressed to one another. 

“I just don’t want you to ever think I expect one path for us,” he said. “And I want to know that when I’m not here, you’ll be okay.”

“Are you dying or are you trying to take back wanting marriage now that I’m not on my deathbed? Can’t tell here.”

He sighed. “Neither. Of course, it’s neither. I’m okay. And, Vanya?”

“Yeah?”

“There is nothing I want more in the world than to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you,” he finished what he was saying. The thing was, she could sense the ‘but,’ even if it was not stated. She did not need to hear his thoughts to know it was there. 

***

Five and Vanya walked to breakfast with their hands entwined. It felt like more of a “fuck you” to Reginald to add that touch, so she asked Five if they could. He had raised a brow, but he had taken her hand. 

“Number Five, Number Seven, what is the meaning of this?” Reginald snapped. 

“Oh, we’re just so happy, you see, since I woke up,” Vanya said, beaming up at him. “Isn’t it a miracle? I imagine you must be so surprised, Five told me last night that you were so worried I wouldn’t wake up. Isn’t that right, babe?”

Five raised his brows at the pet name, clearly thinking she was laying it on thick, but he went along. “Yes, dear. Of course, we thought you’d want us to go ahead and get together immediately, for our little mission. What was your wording again? I know fucking had to be too crass for you, but that was the general idea, right? Well, don’t worry, the mission is a-go!” 

She nearly snorted, not moving to protest. 

Ben spat out water, seeming to choke. Klaus put his hands together in a prayer-like motion, “Oh, thank you, Lord! Finally, you’ve given me some delicious fucking drama in this house!”

“Number Four,” Reginald snapped. “Do not use such crass language, it is unbecoming of the Academy’s name.” 

“What does it say for the name that you do not allow us to say ‘fuck’ but want us to be doing the action like bunnies?” Vanya said. Klaus looked like he had both died and resurrected himself right there. She could sense Five’s pride. 

“Wait, Five and Vanya have to… you know… for a mission?” Luther asked, glancing subtly at Allison as he patted Ben’s back to get him to stop choking. 

“Well, Luther, super powered children don’t just come from the stork, you gotta put a little work in for them,” Five said. 

“Number Five,” Reginald snapped.

“Would your children even have powers?” Luther asked, not seeming to understand Reginald was trying to rein the conversation in. 

“Well, since both of us have powers,” Vanya said, staring straight at Reginald as she said it. “That would make sense, right?”

There was a silence then, Reginald’s face going so cold that Vanya felt a flash of fear. But then she remembered Five’s hand against her own, and knew that they would not be here much longer. Maybe Reginald would make them leave because they were causing him so much grief. It was a nice thought. 

Allison was the one who broke the silence, surprisingly. “I, for one, think Vanya and Five’s child would be a nightmare. Five’s temper and Vanya’s power? Sounds like Hell.”

“What power does she have?” Luther asked her. They were not winning subtlety points either. 

“One that she has been forced to suppress by a shit ton of pills. You know, Reginald,” everyone winced as Five said his name, but nobody objected. “I know you planned that nonsense about altering Vanya’s age on that birth certificate, but why would a fifteen year old be on such strong medicine anyways? No psychiatrist would prescribe that shit, especially considering she’s had it for years. Although, to be fair, she probably didn’t have a psychiatrist then? Hey, how much  _ better  _ does it look that you have drugged a fifteen year old up and forced her to have sex with your seventeen year old purchase as well? Makes you almost kinda wish you hadn’t fucked with her documentation, huh?”

Reginald stared at him. “I will expect all of you in my office in an hour. None of you are to speak before them.”

“An hour?” Five said, glancing around the room like he was surprised. “I cannot believe it takes him that long to write self-righteous speeches! I just assumed he pulled those out of his ass! Makes them even less impressive!” 

Vanya could feel his heartbeat, knowing that he had never expected to be able to tell off Reginald. His adrenaline was running wild. Vanya wanted him to stop so that he wouldn’t make the situation worse and also wanted him to stop so that she could jump his bones. 

Reginald didn’t bother saying anything, just leaving the room.

“Ben, don’t take this the wrong way,” Klaus said. “But I might be just a little in love with Five and Vanya right now. Just a little hit.” He pinched his fingers together. 

“Honestly, same, so you’re good,” Ben said. “Although, Vanya, you saying ‘babe,’ should never happen, and I hated it very much.” 

Allison laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Reginald’s face that purple. I didn’t even know that’s humanly possible.”

Luther was still dazed. “Vanya and Five have sex for missions? And Vanya has powers?” 

“I wish Diego got to see this,” Klaus said. “I wonder where he is.” 

“I hope with his soulmate,” Five said, pulling out a chair. “He always wanted to find her.”

Ben made a face, “And here Klaus and I had a bet that he was gay, that’s too bad.”

“He could still be bi,” Klaus argued.

“Oh, true!” Ben said. “We still have a chance!” 

Vanya never felt as alive as she felt right then. And she never felt as close to the people in this room as she did right now. She moved to kiss Five, getting claps from Ben and Klaus, a smile from Allison, and a confused glance from Luther. 

***

Vanya and Five blatantly ignored the meeting with Reginald. As far as she knew, Allison, Klaus, and Ben did as well. Luther likely went, but she couldn’t find herself to be mad. He was raised as Number One, he still believed that Reginald could love him if he worked just a little harder. She could not begrudge him for Reginald being a bad person. 

Vanya and Five did, however, joke about earlier Reginald’s facial expressions until they were laughing. And then started kissing, earlier tension forgotten. And then she crawled on top of him. 

“We can’t go further than we have,” Five told her. 

“I know,” she said, palming him. 

“I’m serious,” he said as she started trailing kisses down his stomach. She remembered the almost first time and shivered. 

“I know,” she said, closing her mouth around him. 

“This is irresponsible,” he told her as he looked up from between her thighs. 

“I know,” she said. “Let’s do it anyways.” 

And he leaned his head down, mouth against her, and she couldn’t say much after that.

As she came down from her high, he kissed her everywhere. Finally, he found her face. 

“Vanya,” he whispered. “We can’t go back from this. And you  _ know _ that we don’t have anything with us. If anything happens-“

“We’ll be long gone,” she told him. 

“Vanya, this changes nothing. We’ll still be us. We’re going to be okay. I love you more than I could ever say.” 

She pulled him down. “Show me, then.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! We’re getting so near the end, and I am so excited for it! There is some more angst to come, of course, but smut too, so that’s a positive!


	10. There’s nothing we can do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya and Five sleep together. Five makes plan for Vanya to escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut ahead! Also, angst!

He had never seen anything as beautiful as the softness and confidence in her smile. She was so small underneath him, and as he made a point to look nice and long over her body, she bit her lip. 

“I wish you could hear my thoughts right now,” he told her. “But, I can tell you all about them. Do you want to hear them, Vanya?”

She nodded vigorously, and he hid his smile. His hand reached down, teasingly brushing across her hip. “I’m thinking about how you’re so beautiful, which you’ve heard enough times in my thoughts already, so I can spare those details. Instead, I’ll talk about the way you sometimes take my breath away when you express a little confidence in yourself.”

His hand traveled up a bit, not quite touching her where she would want yet. “I’m thinking about how your skin is so soft, and how you feel so good against me. I’m thinking of your pretty mouth, how it opens up just a little bit when I move my hand right.”

He pushed his hand up, and she squeaked. “Just like that, yes. Which leads me to your voice. When I get to hear you out loud and say the sweetest things, but also when I hear you begging me to let you come as I eat you out.”

She whined, and he grinned. “I’m thinking about how I could listen to you talk for hours, and it would still not be enough. I’m thinking about how I love to call you mine, but I love even more when you call me yours.” 

He moved down to kiss her, and as he did he slipped a finger inside of her and used his thumb to touch her where she would want it most. “I’m thinking about how I could be with you forever, and it would never be enough time. I’m thinking about how I would travel time over and over, so that maybe we could have more time.”

“Five, please,” Vanya groaned. 

“I love you so much, Vanya,” he told her. 

“I love you too.” 

As he moved his hand, and he pushed inside of her, he told her, “If you could read my thoughts, I’d ask you to see you to look at yourself from my eyes for once. Because you’d never have a single doubt about yourself if you saw yourself the way that I see you.” 

They both adjusted to feeling, and then they were both crying. 

“It’s so-“

“I know,” he said, kissing her cheek. Because he felt it too. Bond or no, being with her right then was all encompassing. It was everything. “God, Vanya, I know.”

She moved her hips, and he groaned at the feeling. He moved back a little, and then they reached just the right pace.

“Why have we not done this already?” Vanya asked. “We should’ve been doing this for a while. Fuck, Five. Fuck!” 

He laughed. “We’re so stupid for doing this, but I can’t even bring myself to care right now.” 

“God, we could be doing this all the time, though. We should do this all the time. What’s stopping us?” 

“Common sense and our impending doom?” 

“Oh, fuck that.”

“We literally are.” And then they stopped talking, moving quicker. Vanya flipped him over so that she was on top, and she rolled her hips, head tilting back as she whined. Her hair spilled over her shoulders, ending with just a slight curl over her bare chest. His hand brushed it back, tugging just a little. 

“Five!” 

He moved his hand to back where it had been before, rubbing her so he could hear her shout his name again. She did, multiple times, moving her hips to increase the pressure of his fingers. And then her upper body stilled, eyes rolled back in bliss, while her hips kept rolling rhythmically. And, okay, there was something to be said about seeing her riding him to prolonged her orgasm, mouth opened in a little “O.” And even though he couldn’t feel her pleasure or see the same things as her right then, the sight of it was enough to push him over the edge too. 

*** 

She told Five everything as her head rested against his shoulder. They had hastily washed off with a towel, stopping every few seconds to kiss each other. Five patiently listened to her speak of the memories she would have never have known without Allison rumoring her to remember. And when she had finished, he told her simply, “You’re getting out of here tonight.” 

She pulled back. “But our bond isn’t back.” 

“We’ll get it back once those drugs wear off,” he told her. “You’ll be okay, and you’ll be safe. I promise.” 

Except they both knew there was a “but” that he didn’t add. It’s just that Vanya didn’t know what it was and Five did. 

  
  


*** 

Five found Ben and Klaus cuddled up on Ben’s bed. They glanced up at his arrival, but did not bother untangling.

“Are you two still planning to leave?” he asked, grabbing a chair and sitting across from them. 

“Yes,” Klaus said.

“You want to go tonight?” 

They shared a glance, and Ben groaned, “Five, you can’t seriously be thinking what I’m pretty sure you’re thinking.” 

He stared at them. “It’s the only way, and you know it.”

“She’s gonna be so pissed at you,” Klaus told him. “If Ben tried to pull that shit, he would get this ass for sure, but I would be angry nonetheless.”

Five sighed. “I don’t know any other way that she will certainly be safe. You guys  _ know  _ that this is the only certain option.” 

“Where is she now?” Ben asked. 

Five gripped the sides of the chair so that his hand was balled into a fist. “Packing.” 

“And does she know?” Klaus’s voice was disapproving. 

“If she did, this plan wouldn’t work, and you know that.” 

Ben sighed. “Five, this is gonna hurt her. You know it’s not what she thinks of when she thinks of leaving.” 

“I’m not risking her, Ben. You guys both have to understand that at least.”

“Do you understand it though?” Ben’s voice held no humor. “You know what you’re giving up? That your life is going to be Hell?”

“I want her safe, loved, protected, and happy. That’s all that matters,” he said. 

“How could she possibly be happy though?” 

“Then the first three will be enough until she can be.”

“We’re going to do this, but you have to promise that it won’t be forever.” 

“Of course not forever,” Five sighed. “I couldn’t live with myself if it was forever. Just until things settle, until I know we’re safe. Just- just take care of her. Please.” 

“We will, but she’s getting her own bedroom. You seem like you’d be the jealous type.”

“You’re not wrong, Klaus. Also, how the fuck did you think I would have said yes if you had not given her her own bedroom?” 

“Don’t need to worry at all, we’re still shooting for Diego.” 

“Good luck with that.”

“Good luck with Vanya hitting you square in the jaw when she finds out what you’re about to do.” 

  
  


***

As Vanya’s bags were packed again, this time purposefully without her pills, she sat down on her bed again. Her eyes went out of focus as she thought back to the first time she left. She had been just a little hopeful, now she was seeing everything that could go wrong. But she had to leave, she and Five couldn’t be there any longer.

When Five came to her bedroom, he was flanked by Ben and Klaus. 

Klaus grinned at her, “We thought we’d come along too, if that’s okay with you.” 

Vanya smiled at them. “Of course.” Then she looked to Five, and she felt her face redden.

Ben caught the glance. “Oh, so that wasn’t a lie about the fucking business, then.” 

Vanya’s face went impossibly redder, and Five smiled at her blush. 

“Don’t ask her for details, Klaus,” Five told them cheerfully. “Or I will hit you.” 

“Oh, please, Ben’s tentacles are no match for teleportation skills, though I think Vanya might be a match for him. Which, by the way, Vanya, I hope you’re prepared for tears. Ben is a hardass in training unless you have soulmate privileges like myself.”

Vanya glanced over to Ben. “You’re gonna help train me?” 

She could tell by the way Ben paused a second that he was talking to Klaus through their own bond. Ben made a face at him before telling her, “Yes, you’re gonna need to train.”

“Guys, what about Allison? And Luther?” Vanya asked. She remembered how Allison had been almost friendly at breakfast. 

Klaus, who had always actually been friendly with Allison, answered. “She’s waiting for Luther, still. But she thinks he’ll figure it out at some point.”

Vanya nodded, “I hope she’s okay here, but I understand how she feels. Five and I could never separate like that either.” 

Five cleared his throat, “We should get going.” 

Vanya grabbed one of his hands, Ben the other, and Klaus grabbed Ben’s. 

They landed right in front of a bus stop. Vanya realized then that Five didn’t have a bag like the rest of them. 

“Oh, Five! You only have a few minutes to jump back and grab your bag, but if you jump back now and grab it, I’ll try to get the bus driver to wait. If not, we’ll take the next bus.” 

“Actually,” Five said. “That won’t be necessary.” 

Vanya scrunched her face. “Five, your research. You’ve got years worth of work.” 

“I won’t need it because I will not be going.”

Klaus glanced at Ben before pointing over to the bench in the booth. “We’ll wait over there, so you can have a little privacy.” 

She whirled around to face him. “What do you mean you will not be going?” 

“I think it’s pretty clear, actually,” he said. She could hear the sadness more clearly than the flippancy he was aiming for. 

“Five, we have a chance to get away from him, we have a chance to _get away,_ ” she knew he could hear the panic in her voice more than the anger she was aiming for. 

He leaned down to touch her cheek, and she slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me!” she snapped. “Don’t fucking act like this isn’t about you never wanting a bond in the first place. If you can’t have the courage to run away, just send me the fuck off! Sounds great! Truly, you’re a genius!” 

His teeth gritted. “You’re going to be safe if you leave. That’s what matters.” 

“What about you?” A storm was forming behind her, but she could only focus on him. Tears were forming in her eyes. “What about you, Five? You’re gonna be his bitch for the rest of your life? That’s the life you dream of for yourself?”

“You know it isn’t!” He was yelling now. Good. “And you have no fucking idea how hard it is to get you away from here, but I don’t give a fuck about myself if it means you being okay! And do you know how fucking awful that is? Because the only way you’re ever going to be okay is if I’m out of your life!”

Something in Vanya clicked then. Five’s resentment to the universe was that he wanted her to have all of the universe and not just him. Sadness hit her stomach. She knew that he was taking this path because he saw it as inevitable, the only clear way to her being safe. And Five loved her more than he could despise Reginald.

And then they were both sobbing, gripping each other. 

“I’m sorry,” she said. 

“I’m sorry too. Fuck, we have only a few minutes before the bus arrives. And Klaus and Ben look like they’re trying really hard to pretend they didn’t hear any of that.” 

“Five?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s not forever, right?” 

He pulled back now. “It’s not even a long time. You will train, learn to use your powers with Ben and Klaus. I’ll be a good soldier for him for a few years at most, and then I’ll go to you guys. And we can have everything we dreamed of then. It’s just putting it all on hold until we can live a life without any of the fear attached to it.”

“You promise?” 

He held out his pinky. She burst out laughing and kissed him instead. 

When they pulled away, he wiped her tears away with his thumb. “I won’t be mad, Vanya, if you find someone-“

She was going to punch him. “Do not even  _ think  _ about finishing that sentence. And if you try to find any sort of replacement Vanya in my absence, I swear to God that I will come back here just to use my newly learned powers to kick your ass.”

He spread his hands out in front of him, “There will be no replacement Vanyas, just promise me that you’ll do what it takes to be happy, please?”

“I promise, but that doesn’t include sleeping with other people,” she told him.

He grinned, “I would not dare, I  _ will  _ be having a hot date with some equations, though. If our bond is switched off much longer, I could find the equations to time travel enough to where I won’t even have to feel the absence.”

“I’m sorry, but ‘having a hot date with some equations’ is the worst thing you will ever say and I’m so embarrassed for you right now. If you figure out time travel, do not go any further than a year though.”

“Did you just agree to me time traveling without saying something about getting hurt or landing in the wrong time? If I had known kicking you to the curb would get you to agree to time travel, I would have done it forever ago.” 

“I hate you,” she informed him. 

“You  _ love  _ me, and I love you too.” 

Then the bus got there, and she felt the panic set in. “Five, please-“

He shook his head. “It is the only way you will be guaranteed safety. If in three months you need me, I will go wherever you want me to. Or if you need me to kick a guy’s ass for hitting on you, I’ll come literally anytime before that.”

“I should just get guys to hit on me in that case,” she mused.

“Do  _ not, _ ” but his eyes were sparkling. 

“You’re still the best soulmate ever,” she told him. “And you’re still going to get enough sleep and take care of yourself, or the threat still stands for finding a new one.” 

“Oh, shut up,” he said. “I love you and you’re going to get on that bus right now and not look back.”

She walked to the bus after she told him she loved him too. Klaus and Ben were waiting for her, and Ben helped her up the steps. 

When she got inside the bus, she did look back. Five, knowing her well, had not left, and he raised a hand in farewell. 

She sat between Klaus and Ben, head turned all the way to watch him from the bus.

Once he had faded completely into the distance, Klaus finally spoke, “Oh, what an emotional rollercoaster you just took us on.” 

“Don’t be an idiot, Klaus,” Ben snapped. “She’s going to cry.” 

“I’m not,” Vanya told him. 

“How are you feeling?” Klaus asked. 

And, yeah, she started sobbing immediately after saying she wouldn’t. 

“We’re here for you,” Ben told her. “Cry as much as you need.” 

And so she did. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter might take a little bit longer because it is gonna be the longest chapter in this based on my outline. After that is the epilogue!


	11. Just let me go we’ll meet again soon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five and Vanya handle being separated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can’t believe there is only one chapter left. Wow. This has been so fun to write!

She could have handled the separation if she had the bond, she thought. In the weeks that followed her escape, she worried that Reginald had somehow damaged it beyond repair, but earlier today Five had gotten a song stuck in his head and she heard it on loop for thirty minutes. She had started sobbing, and Ben had looked over at Klaus and said, “The bond’s back, I guess.”

Somehow, they had found a farm that they now lived in. When Vanya pressed Klaus for details, he just told her, “Don’t worry about it, he’s a fan.”

The person she wasn’t supposed to worry about seemed to have abandoned the place without taking anything else. He had written down a welcoming note to Klaus specifically though, so she was almost certain they were not breaking in. He never did come by, and Klaus and Ben wouldn’t answer details about him, so she eventually stopped asking. 

Klaus was right about Ben being a hardass in training. By the end of the days she trained, she was too tired to worry about Five and would almost immediately fall asleep the second she laid down. Klaus convinced Ben to give her weekends off, and Klaus sent her to run errands or go get coffee during the time. She had a pretty good suspicion why Ben was so easily convinced.

As she got coffee at a bookstore in the town near the farm and looked through a book about colleges and their programs in America, she allowed her mind to drift to Five. She got the luxury only during her breaks on the weekends. Now that there was a possibility that he could hear, she reached out. 

_ “You okay over there?”  _

No response. She tried pulling the threads, getting near his mind. She could sense him certainly, but it was like there was some sort of block.

Panic hit her. 

_ “Is he drugging you?” _

He didn’t respond. 

She heard the song looping in his head again though as she started biting her nails. It was a song that Luther had on record. Maybe Luther had played it earlier and it was stuck in his head? Or maybe it was a message, somehow-

Then she realized it was kind of pathetic that she was trying to find meaning in Five getting a song stuck in his head, so she gulped down the coffee and wondered if soulmates were both affected by caffeine. She ordered a second cup, but she didn’t drink it, just pushed it to the chair in front of her at the table she sat. 

Contented, she wrote down schools with good physics programs and music programs, and then she matched colleges that had one of the programs that were close enough to one another that she could commute. Every once in a while, she’d glance over at the coffee across from her and thought of the song in hopes that he’d hear it back. 

*** 

He might kill Luther. Once he was certain that the song had left his head for good, he started hearing it again. Christ. 

Five spent his time completing missions (many of them solo for extra punishment) and drinking coffee until he had drunk enough of the stuff that his equations blurred as he scribbled them. He wouldn’t time travel until he was certain that every number was perfectly concise, certain of where he would land. 

Without Vanya, all he had were his dreams of time travel. Allison and Luther making eyes at one another over breakfast constantly ensured that he was always thinking of her, no matter what distraction. Still, he could fantasize about the future and the past while he fretted at the present. He had a dream the other night featuring training he had never done and Ben leading him, so he was pretty sure his bond was starting to come back slowly. He hoped that didn’t mean she was hearing the song over and over again because surely that would be as annoying for her as it was for him. He remembered this time when he was fourteen or fifteen and a fan asked if he would have her babies, and he kept thinking of the phrase over and over again, unsettled. Vanya had snapped at him in the library that day, saying she didn’t want to have sex with him, and he had blushed and sputtered out that he did not mean to think that. She, having had to be first hand witness to his first sex dreams, had rolled her eyes and told him to keep it in his pants. He tried very hard never to think of the phrase after that. 

“Is that as hard as it looks?” Luther had suddenly materialized over his shoulder, and Five hit his knee hard enough to bruise as he jumped up in surprise. 

“Goddammit, Luther,” he snapped. “What do you want?” 

Kicked puppies looked less hurt than the look Luther gave him. He shrugged, looking down at the floor self consciously, “I just wanted to see if you wanted to come with me and Allison to the movies tonight.” 

Five sighed. Luther was annoying, but he was trying to be nice. Still. “Isn’t that a couple’s activity, Luther?” 

Luther blushed. “Well, I thought it would be a bad idea if Allison and I were alone because of, uh. That.” 

He set his pencil down, he would not have any successes in his research tonight it seemed. “Luther, it’s fine that you and Allison have sex, nobody cares,” Five told him. “But I need…” 

His voice trailed off at the look Luther was giving him. Oh, sweet Jesus, why did he ever agree to stay here?

“Allison and I haven’t,” Luther told him. He, uninvited, sat heavily on Five’s bed. 

“Well, if you do-“ Five started to speak again, but Luther cut him off.

“It’s not that I don’t know  _ how _ , per se!”

“Jesus Christ.”

“It’s more like, how do I know if it’s good?”

“Vanya, if you can hear any of this and hear a bullet, that’s just me shooting myself! No need to worry!” 

“Does it hurt?” Luther asked, fingers across his eyes like it was some sort of slasher film and he was a scantily clad lady who couldn’t run. 

“This conversation hurts, actually,” Five told him, considering if he made himself go deaf if that would affect his bond with Vanya in any way. 

“How do you know you’re doing it right?” Luther asked him. “It’s just, well. There’s no sex education in this house. I’m pretty sure Grace is programmed to say that sex kills you because that’s what she said when I asked.” 

Five sighed loudly. He had to shut this down. “Luther, I consider you an alright guy, not completely useless and not even so annoying that I usually want to staple my ears shut when you speak. However, I am  _ not  _ the person to give you the birds and the bees talk.”

“Where do the bees come in?” Luther gasped. “Isn’t that painful?”

“Hey, quick unrelated question, do you know where a stapler is?”

  
  


***

Vanya was starting to have breakthroughs in her training. At first, the exhaustion was too much to handle, and she wanted to just give up. Not that Ben would allow that.

One day, Ben asked Klaus if Klaus could take over training for the rest of the day. They both glanced over at him, not understanding. 

“I have an errand to run,” was all Ben said. 

Klaus clapped his hands together, eyes gleaming. “Yes, Vanya and I will be good, we promise!”

“That wasn’t the question,” Ben said, frowning. “Why are you blocking me out? What are you planning? Should I stay?”

“No, Vanya and I are going to do great! Right, Vanya?” Klaus kicked her under the table. 

She was tempted to ask Ben to stay, but she also thought about how she didn’t really have many friends and Klaus would be nice to have as a friend. “Yeah, Ben, I'll make sure we stay focused.” 

“Thank you,” Ben told her sincerely. She gave him a small smile. 

The door had barely closed before Klaus pulled out two bottles of wine. 

“We, dear Vanya, are day drinking.”

She made a face. “Isn’t that what depressed people do?”

“Uh, we’re depressed, Vanya, catch up.”

He handed her a bottle, and she frowned at it. 

“Fine,” Klaus sighed. “We’ll make it a game. Have you ever played Never Have I Ever?” 

“Never,” she said. 

“Well, in that case, take a drink!” 

The game was not complicated, and Vanya figured out pretty quickly into it that these questions felt targeted. 

“Never have I ever had sex with Five,” Klaus said. 

“That’s cheats-chest,” she found herself unable to speak, and then she giggled really loud. “Bad!” 

“Oh, you are a lightweight, huh?” Klaus grinned over at her, lips a little stained with the drink. 

“Don’t dr... drink,” she made a small noise. “How is training here?”

Klaus laughed, “Don’t you want to see how alcohol affects your powers?” 

She nodded sagely, Klaus was a genius. She thought she heard Five trying to speak to her, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. 

“Five is an asshole!” She told him. “And I love him.”

Klaus made a choking noise, starting to cry. “He just loves you so much! God, I shouldn’t have pregamed so hard, I think I’m actually getting drunk.”

“I know! He loves me so much it  _ hurts _ ,” Vanya cried with Klaus, and then they were hugging and sobbing while taking extra sips of wine. 

When Ben found them sleeping against each other later, Vanya woke just a second while Ben put a blanket over them. 

“You’re both idiots,” Ben told her cheerfully, handing her a glass of water and some ibuprofen. “Don’t worry, I’m just to keep you from hating me tomorrow when we train, the pill is completely safe.”

She nodded, grabbing the pill and chugging the water. She fell asleep again pretty soon, curled into Klaus’s side. 

They woke the next day, and Vanya did feel pain from the hangover but what hurt more than anything was that she had heard Five yesterday and had ignored him. 

***

Five stood in front of Reginald’s desk, while he seemed to be ignoring him. It was a power play, trying to stress him. Mostly, Five just wanted to scratch his ankle, so the threat didn’t land that well.

When Reginald spoke, he sounded like he was pleased, like he had just won some sort of battle of the wits. “You have not complained since Number Seven has disappeared. Have you realized without her you can be a loyal soldier, Number Five?”

Five didn’t like him talking about Vanya, but he didn’t allow his response to give any inflection besides a tone of boredom. “No, I still hate it here, don’t worry about that. I just have agreed to be your soldier for three years, and I’m not going to complain because you might take away the agreement if I do. Sounds like you, I think.”

Reginald blinked. “Well, I suppose as long as you stay loyal, that is what matters.” 

“Sure thing,  _ Dad _ ,” Five found that Reginald actually got more pissed about being called “Dad” sarcastically than Reginald seriously. 

“You’re dismissed, Number Five,” Reginald said, going back to his work. Five jumped to the kitchen, making a sandwich methodically. Grace interrupted him, asking if he needed anything. He shook his head. Five did not mind Grace because she was a robot and couldn’t handle being programmed to do what she had to, but he didn’t even speak to Pogo now. He couldn’t look at him without wondering if he knew.

He wanted to hate Allison for what Vanya went through, but she asked him daily if he had heard anything from her. Told him if they got back in communication to tell Vanya that Allison hoped she was okay and that she loved her. She also had given him wordlessly one day a list of colleges that would work for them and apartment listings near them. She had clearly put a lot of work into compiling it, but she had presented it like she had found it somewhere and was just giving it back to him. 

Luther and Five were almost what he would call friends. When they had missions together, Luther would ask his input. Luther also thankfully stopped asking Five questions about sex, which Five was infinitely grateful for. 

Five one time got a letter from Diego after a mission, dramatically placed in his room with a knife being used as a thumbtack. He read through it quickly with a smile, Diego was safe and fine and actually had found his soulmate who he had only heard once before then. 

Each night before he went to sleep, Five would recount all of the details of his day to Vanya. Only one time did he hear her voice back in his mind. She had sounded intoxicated, and he worried that she was in danger. But she hadn’t responded when he asked, and he heard a very loud voice the next day that only a hangover could produce. 

His life started to be completely methodical. He started to crave missions because it was something new. There was also a sense of completion when the mission was over, something that he was not getting from the time travel. Each time he started to write, he saw Vanya’s face when they were thirteen and felt the jolt of fear of what it was like without a soulmate. And what was truly awful about it was that he was without one now, just by choice. 

There was a point when he recounted his day that he broke down, drinking whiskey until his vision swam. He hoped that the alcohol would do the trick like it had with Vanya, and for a few blissful seconds, it was like she was right there with him. But then he drank some more to keep the feeling, and his eyelids drooped. 

If she could sense the pounding headache he had when he woke up, he did not know. 

***

Ben stopped putting as much strain on her at one point, and she found out that Ben was an early riser. Klaus, whose sleep schedule was erratic, was not always up in the morning. Vanya and Ben sat next to each other each day at breakfast, talking and eating without worrying about doing something wrong and pissing off Reginald. 

One day, Ben asked her if she remembered the day he had gone on an errand. 

She scrunched her face, remembering the horrible hangover, but nodded. 

Ben glanced around, like he was looking for somebody hearing him. When he was satisfied no one was, he reached into his hoodie’s pocket and pulled out a little box. 

It took Vanya a second to figure out what it was, but then he unclasped it and she gasped. “You’re gonna propose?”

Ben nodded. “I picked it out that day, figuring Klaus would choose to get drunk with you anyways and wouldn’t notice.” 

Vanya blushed, but she asked, “Are you sure about it?”

Ben shrugged. “I know we’re only…”

He trailed off, realizing something. “We’re eighteen now, did you realize that?” 

Vanya’s eyes widened, “It’s November, isn’t it? We forgot about our birthday.”

“I guess I just wasn’t really keeping track of time,” Ben mused. “We’ve been out of the manor for a long time, huh?” 

Vanya’s stomach sunk though. There was plenty of time for Five and Vanya’s bond to have come back to the strength it was. It had not. 

_ “Five, are you okay? Please just tell me.” _

There was a layer of static still, and she wanted to cry. 

“It  _ has _ been a long time,” Vanya said softly to Ben.

***

The bond came back full force for Five when he had been going to his room after he was certain he had a breakthrough. He fell to his knees at the force of her thoughts. 

She was with Ben and Klaus, and they were at some sort of restaurant by the looks of it. He heard the sound of her laughter at something Klaus had said. There was so much joy, he could feel it himself.

And then it hit him. She had everything he ever wanted for her now. 

He loved her in a particular way. His love was staying up late when he was young to take away her bad dreams. His love was being in a place he hated more than anything to know that she could be safe now. His love was keeping promises, distracting her when she was upset, protecting her even if she did not know it, and always being the friend that loved her unconditionally that she did not even understand she had. His love was not despite her flaws but because her flaws gave her another dimension. His love was letting her go because he knew she was safe, taken care of, loved, and happy. His love was saying goodbye, even if that meant for forever. Because he would never want her to hate him, but he could not bear her to hate him when he knew what it was like to love her. 

She had everything he ever wanted her to have. She was safe, far away from Reginald. She was taken care of, nothing would happen to her in Ben and Klaus’s care. She was loved, fiercely, by friends that she had always wanted to have. And the piece he worried about- she was happy, fully and truly happy. 

And he decided then that he would wait until she came to him. He remembered the way the woman months ago had acted content just having a good friend in her soulmate. He would always love Vanya romantically, but it would be enough if she was just as happy as she was now. It would be a miracle, better than anything he could have ever imagined for her. And when Vanya was ready for him, ready to have him back, he would go to her immediately. 

Until then, he could wait. 

***

She was able to make contact with Five again shortly before Christmas that year. 

All it took apparently was Ben and Klaus cuddling to get Five’s attention. They had eaten dinner together at the farm, and Klaus had convinced Ben and Vanya to do shots. He claimed it was a training exercise, but as he poured them into glasses he had in his jackets, light reflecting off the ring on his hand, Vanya figured he had just been wanting to get drunk. 

Vanya found out that she could pretend to drink, and they wouldn’t notice. Ben and Klaus were wrapped up together on the couch, talking softly and laughing. She sat down on the armchair opposite of them, thinking of Five. Maybe she wanted that drink after all. 

Vanya also didn’t want to move from her spot though, content to wallow in her sadness. She thought of all the times that they had looked this happy. She wished he was there. 

_ “Can you please stop thinking that so loud?” _

Her eyes filled with tears. 

_ “Five?” _

_ “I’m here.” _

_ “Have you been able to hear me this entire time?”  _

_ “No, I got mine back a few weeks ago. I didn’t want to interrupt you though, you looked so happy.” _

_ “I  _ am  _ happy. But I would be even happier if you were here. How long did you agree to stay with Reginald?” _

_ “Two and a quarter more years.” _

His voice sounded sad. 

_ “You think you could get out before then?” _

He paused a few beats until he seemed to sense she was panicking that the bond was lost. 

_ “I won’t get mad if you say no, but do you think I could wait until Luther and Allison are ready too? I don’t want to leave them here. I would go to you right now, and, if you asked, I would not hesitate.” _

She thought back to how Allison had freed her essentially from never waking up and how that last day, she thought she and Allison could maybe be friends one day. 

_ “Stay until then. I’ll be okay here. But we’ll check in everyday.” _

_ “Considering the fact that your thoughts are so loud, that won’t be a problem.” _

_ “Dick.” _

_ “I love you.” _

_ “I love you too.” _

***

It all went to hell one day during a mission. 

They needed Diego and Ben. Even Klaus there for backup would have helped. 

This was a particularly bad mission, and when Allison had gone to use her rumor, she had yelled instead. Luther had snapped his head up, and then they were retreating, Five jumping them to the mansion. 

Luther stayed with Allison in the infirmary while Grace started to take care of her, but then they were informed by Pogo that they were supposed to see Reginald. 

Five knew where this was going. Luther told Pogo that he couldn’t go, and had to stay with Allison.

Pogo hadn’t budged, telling Luther that since neither or Five were injured, they were to go to Reginald’s office immediately. 

“Let’s just go, Luther,” Five told him. There was no point in arguing, it wouldn’t help Allison.

“I can’t just leave her,” Luther replied, voice hard. 

Five didn’t know what to say. He, of course, understood. How could he not?

“It will be worse for her if you do,” Five told him. That he was certain of. 

Luther closed his eyes. He opened them after a few beats of silence, and they silently walked to Reginald’s office. 

“Was the mission completed, Number One?” Reginald asked, no greeting, though Five hadn’t expected it. 

“Allison was injured,” Luther said. 

“That is irrelevant for this debriefing. Was the mission completed, Number One?” 

Luther made a discontented noise, Five shifted uncomfortably. 

“It was not completed,” Five said, speaking because he thought Luther might make a mistake if he didn’t.

“I asked Number One, Number Five. Number One, what is the meaning of-“

“What do you mean it is  _ irrelevant _ ?” Luther asked.

_ “Vanya, be prepared for us to be there. I think it’s possible we might need to leave.”  _

_ “Are you okay?”  _

_ “For right now. Well, Allison got injured pretty badly, but I’m more worried of what might happen.” _

Five snapped back to attention when he heard the crack. He looked over to Luther in horror, and then to Reginald. 

“Luther,” Five said slowly. “What have you done?”

Luther looked just as horrified as Five imagined he himself did. “You asked me if it had been Allison a while back, didn’t you? When Ben got hurt?”

Five glanced at Reginald’s still body. He knew that Luther was capable of doing a lot to protect Allison, he had just never imagined this. 

“We have to get Allison to a hospital,” Five said, shaking off the shock but it wouldn’t leave. He understood what it must feel like to give orders when it seemed like the world was falling apart, and he felt a pang of sympathy for Luther then. “And we have to get out of here,  _ right now. _ ”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone for reading! Next chapter will be the last.
> 
> Please don’t be mad at me for adding the “major character death” tag. Oof, realizing y’all might’ve been like “uhhhhhh” 👀


	12. Carry our bodies safely to the shore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya worries for Five, Five and Vanya are reunited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’ve made it to the final chapter!!! I’m so happy to conclude this story, and I am going to immediately start on another once this is posted and I’ve replied to the most recent comments! Thank you so much for all coming to read this!

Vanya was bothering Five through the bond every few seconds, panicking, but he kept silent. Well, not silent, he just wasn’t responding to what she was saying, clearly focusing on some other task. It felt like when he was on a mission, except it was worse because she had no idea what to do.

“What do we do?” Vanya asked, head in her hands. Ben and Klaus kept trying to reach for her, but she’d jerk away. She was entirely convinced that Five was about to die.

“All he did was ask you to get the house ready right?” Ben tried to sound reasonable. “And Allison was hurt, but we get injured in missions frequently, Vanya.”

She realized that she was wearing Five’s hoodie, and that she had gotten snot on it from crying, which naturally made her start sceam-crying. 

“I know that, Klaus,” Ben snapped. “Vanya, you need to try to calm down because you, uh broke the... You need to try to calm down.” 

She noticed that the tornado like winds and the rain falling in sheets outside the farm.

“Knock me out,” she said. “I need you to knock me out.”

Ben and Klaus seemed to reach a consensus, and then Klaus told Vanya, “Vanya, you have to breathe.”

“I’m not having a panic attack, Five and Luther and Allison could be  _ dead _ at any second-“

And then Five materialized behind her, and she was crying and panicking so much that she couldn’t just turn it off. Five gave an accusing glance to Ben and Klaus before gently pulling her to him. 

She cried while he brushed her hair with his hands and whispered that everything would be okay. 

“Are Luther and Allison-“ she choked again. 

“No!” Five’s voice sounded too startled by the concept. “They’re with Allison at a hospital far enough from the mansion that they would have to have an alibi, and if any suspicions arise, Allison will rumor.”

“Alibi?” Vanya hiccuped, and Five went to sit down, pulling her into his lap. 

“I’m gonna wait until you’re calm enough to tell you everything,” he said, kissing her forehead. He glanced up at Klaus and Ben. “Has she had panic attacks like this the entire time?”

“This is the first one where we’re convinced she might actually cause an apocalypse,” Klaus grumbled. Ben hit his stomach.

“Fine,” Klaus told him. 

Five’s voice sounded too perky to be realistic, but she admired his effort at trying to calm her. “Is this how bad we are?”

Ben smiled at him. “You’re worse. We have all kinds of bets going about what you two talk about when you make certain faces at each other. You also tend to have more conversations that nobody hears than out loud.”

Klaus handed her a glass of water, and she sat up enough to drink it. Five kept a firm grip on her though, and she didn’t get off of him as she gulped the water down. 

It took about fifteen minutes before the panic attack was entirely over. When it was, Five told them everything. 

Vanya was worried she was about to panic again. “He’s just  _ dead _ ?”

“Good riddance,” Klaus said. 

Five frowned at him, and she could feel him wanting to reproach Klaus. 

“Do you think Allison is gonna be okay?” Ben asked. Vanya could feel her panic rise, and Five squeezed her hand, mentally trying to calm her down while also talking to them. 

“She’ll be okay. She wasn’t nearly as bad off as Ben had been, though the doctor said she'll at least be there overnight,” Five said. “Luther and Allison will need to stay here too, so we need to be ready for them. I’ll have to get them, so I need to rest before I can use my powers again.”

Vanya moved to get off of him, but before she could, he stood up. He adjusted his hold so that she was comfortably in his arms, she hid her face so Klaus and Ben wouldn’t give her any shit. Having a relationship now where they felt comfortable making jokes about her sex life, they made them constantly. 

Of course, Five completely ruined the whole subtlety concept when he told them, “Vanya and I will be busy, don’t bother us.”

_ “They are gonna give me so much shit.” _

He didn’t respond, and she glanced up at him as his hands unclasped her bedroom door. Once they were inside, he closed the door quickly behind him, locking it, and set her on the bed. 

“Five, are you-“

And then his lips were against hers. She made a startled noise but kissed him back. He sat down beside her on the bed, pulling her back into his lap. 

_ “I kept thinking that he had somehow taken it away.”  _

In her head, his voice was frantic, not at all like the way he spoke downstairs. 

_ “I couldn’t stand to stay with Luther and Allison at that hospital. I was so worried for you that once I knew Allison would be okay, I went straight to you. I’m so sorry that I caused you to panic, I was panicking too.” _

She squeezed his hand, wiping a tear from his eye.

_ “We don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to, Five, I’m perfectly happy to just sleep.” _

His ears turned red and he glanced down. “Is it wrong for me to say that I just need you right now? If you don’t want to-“

“I do,” she told him immediately but waited for him to go on. 

“It’s just, all that I need right now, all that I want right now, is you. I have been waiting for you for months, and this was the longest we’ve ever been apart.”

She kissed him, but he pulled back after a few moments. 

“Us separating, Vanya? I was wrong to do that. I don’t ever want to be apart like that again. And I have no idea what will happen to us, but I know that I’m going to make sure we’re okay.” 

“Do you think we’ll ever be able to have a normal life?” she asked him. 

“No,” he told her, blunt as always. “But that’s fine. We can change our names, go to college, and adopt dogs. Our lives can be happy, and we can be happy.” 

“What do you want for the future?” Vanya asked. 

“Like what do I imagine for us?”

“Yeah, but also your particular goals too.”

He sat back, pulling her down with him. “Well, I am rooting for college and a dog for sure.”

She smirked at him. “What about marriage?”

“I tell you my soulmate once or twice that I want to marry her, and she acts like I’ve just announced the impending apocalypse or something,” he grumbled. 

She laughed. “I think marriage would be nice. Eventually. After we’ve been to college and have stable jobs so that our four dogs are well provided for.”

His lips quirked up at the corners, “That could be arranged.” 

“But,” Vanya said, biting her lip. 

“Yeah?” he asked. 

“I think there’s one thing I want more than others…” 

He heard her thought before she said it out loud, and he raised his brows. “Are you certain you want that? You were worried before.”

She took both of her hands in his. “I’m certain.”

“Vanya Hargreeves,” he said. “Will you travel time with me?”

“Well, when you put it like that, of course not. Find a better pitch, and I’m in!” 

***

They talked a while, catching each other up in their lives, stopping to kiss frequently. And then there was less talking and more kissing. And then, they were just making out, and Five was grateful he had told Klaus and Ben that he and Vanya shouldn’t be disturbed. 

_ “I missed you so much. God.” _

_ “There were a few moments during the time we were apart that I worried you had gotten pregnant, did I tell you that? I mean, obviously, you’re not, but I was convinced.” _

_ “Honestly, I worried a little too, but I got my period almost immediately. I should probably get on the pill or an IUD or something though, we should not think of children until we’re  _ at least  _ thirties.” _

_ “God, Luther probably doesn’t even know what an IUD is.” _

_ “Why would you even bring that up?” _

_ “I almost had to give Luther the birds and the bees talk, which, by the way, if we ever choose to have kids, I’m not giving that talk. It is the  _ worst.” 

She laughed out loud at that. 

_ “How did he  _ not  _ know?” _

_ “I mean, it’s not like the curriculum for the Umbrella Academy had a thorough biology class with comprehensive sexual education. Still, I refuse to teach him, he can read about it on his own.” _

With a serene smile, she told him, “If you keep talking about Luther’s sex ed, I will never have sex with you.”

“In that case, I will gladly never speak of it again. Not that I had even wanted to, but it was too good not to share.”

She frowned. “We do need protection though, actually. Technically, it is recommended to have two forms of protection, but we for sure need at least one.”

He nodded. “I don’t have any though. So maybe we should not-“

“Five, there are two sexually active men in this house already.”

He stared at her in horror. “Vanya, we  _ cannot  _ ask them for condoms. What if they start explaining the varieties? What if they start recommending which ones feel best? I would rather us become born again virgins than ask them.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s not that big of a deal, Five.”

When they went to Klaus’s and Ben’s room to ask for them, it  _ was  _ that big of a deal.

“Have I ever told you guys about gas station pleasure packs?” Klaus asked. 

“Yes, and we know you have better products than what you can get a quarter at a gas station,” Vanya told him cheerily. “So, go get them or I’ll tell Five about that dream you told me about when you got drunk last week.” 

Klaus made a discontented noise, but he dutifully went back into his and Ben’s room and grabbed an appallingly large and varied handful. “How could we possibly ever need this many flavors?” Five asked.

Klaus beamed at him, “You guys haven’t seen each other in months, you’ll figure it out! Now, please leave, Ben is all tied up right now and I have to get on that.”

Five frowned. “If Ben is busy, why would you need to be with him?”

“No, not tied up in busy, silly,” Klaus shook his head. “Tied up as in  _ bondage _ , something you and Vanya will be doing in a few months when you get a little bored! If I leave him alone too long, he gets all whiny, so go away!”

Klaus slammed his door in their face, and Five sighed. “I didn’t have to ask him for a follow up, did I?” 

“No,” Vanya told him. “You didn’t.”

*** 

Their kisses were frantic against each other as they tore off each other’s clothes. Five locked the door behind them, searching through the vast amounts of condoms for one that was not some weird flavor combination like mint and grape, glowed in the dark, or what appeared to be Halloween themed. “Are they collecting them?” he grumbled before seeming to decide the Halloween themed one was the best bet after finding no normal ones.

“Are those bats or jack-o-lantern faces?” Vanya asked.

“I don’t care as long as they’re FDA approved.” 

He started kissing her again, but she suddenly felt nervous. The last time the fear had not been bad because it felt like they had built up to it for a long time, but they had barely even spoken in the past few months. 

“Can we stop?” she asked.

He pulled back immediately. “Of course, do you want to sleep instead?”

“I just want to wait until I feel comfortable again,” she felt like she had to explain.

“Yeah, that’s completely fine and I get it, but do you want the right side of the bed or the left side?”

“Are you mad?” she asked, searching for any upset at what she said, but there was none.

He sighed, “Vanya, I’m not gonna pressure you into that kind of thing, and you clearly don’t want to right now. That’s completely okay, we have plenty of time.”

She smiled, “Thank you.”

“No need to thank me. Also, we are  _ never  _ asking for Klaus’s help again.”

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

***

When Vanya and Five went downstairs for breakfast, Klaus and Ben were waiting for them, grinning.

“Busy night?” Ben asked. 

“You and Klaus are hardly innocent,” Vanya said, rolling her eyes.

“I’m not sure I like this new dynamic,” Five commented, pointing at the three of them.

Vanya beamed. “Are you mad that Klaus and Ben will monopolize me?”

“You shouldn't though,” Ben said. “Vanya’s powers are way too freaky for us.”

Five frowned. “I obviously was not worried about  _ that. _ I’m just confused because usually Vanya gets embarrassed by jokes about sex, but now she seems, if anything, mildly annoyed.” 

Vanya glanced over at them, noticing something. “Oh! You don’t know yet, do you? Klaus and Ben are engaged!”

“Yes, and we expect  _ good  _ gifts at our wedding,” Klaus told him. “Do not dare get us a toaster.”

“Congratulations,” Five said. “Also, you’re aware you’re eighteen, right? And not in a weird religious cult?”

Ben rolled his eyes. “I mean, we  _ are  _ soulmates, and we  _ do  _ love each other, and there are people that get married to their soulmates almost immediately after they meet them.”

“Yeah, you and Vanya are the heartless monsters here,” Klaus chimed in.

_ “Are we weird for wanting to wait for that a little bit?” _

_ “Of course not, but I understand them wanting to get married too.” _

Ben and Klaus were likely about to (hypocritically) complain about them using their bond when only they could hear, but then there was a loud crashing. 

Five reached for a knife from the table, moving in front of Vanya. 

“It’s just me! Jesus!” Diego appeared, stumbling over the door he’d broken down.

“There was a perfectly good doorbell right there,” Ben pointed out. “Side note, how the fuck did you know where to find us?”

“I talked to Luther who was told by Five who read Vanya’s thoughts to know the location,” Diego said. “And then I told my soulmate I would be gone a little bit because of an emergency with you guys. And then I drove straight here.”

“You talked to  _ Luther? _ ”

“You actually have a soulmate?”

“You can drive?” 

Diego frowned at them. “I can talk to Luther in emergency situations, which, by the way, why are none of you acting like this is an emergency situation?”

“I mean, Allison has the rumor and we technically all have alibis, anyways.”

“What about the cameras?” 

Five blinked at him. “Do you really think I wouldn’t destroy them while Luther was getting Allison?”

Vanya spoke up for the first time since Diego had arrived. She had been hidden behind Five but cleared her throat and moved over. 

“Thank you,” she told Diego. Five was confused for a few seconds, and then he remembered one of the things Reginald had threatened and how Diego had saved her from that fate. And he was suddenly just as grateful. 

Diego looked surprised (and uncomfortable) when Vanya hugged him. “I mean, it wasn’t like I wanted to do that anyways. Uh, no offense.” 

“How did you and Luther get in contact?” Klaus asked. 

”He called me with a number I gave Five for emergencies?” 

“Oh, thank you, by the way, for that dramatic ass note!” Five told him. 

Diego made a face. “How would you not have known it was me without one of my knives?”

“Possibly because of this magical thing called a ‘signature!’” 

“Is Allison okay?” Vanya interrupted before they could start arguing. 

“Yes,” Diego replied. “And Five’ll have to get her tomorrow when she gets out of the hospital.”

Vanya’s eyes watered, and Five grabbed her hand.

_ “We’re going to be okay.” _

_ “Can I go with you?”  _

He almost opened his mouth to protest, but then he couldn’t think of any reason she shouldn’t go except his jumping being affected, but the worst case scenario was just that Allison, Luther, Vanya, and himself would have to find an alternate mode of transportation. He nodded to her request quickly. 

“How long will you be here?” Ben asked Diego.

“Two weeks tops is what I told my soulmate.”

“Okay, there are technically four bedrooms but one is not that huge. Are you okay with that one once Luther and Allison get here?” 

Diego nodded. “Five, will you be able to make that jump? You should probably rest a little, I’m assuming you didn’t sleep last night.”

Five would have said some sort of retort, but Diego had said it matter-of-factly, just a touch of concern. Five shrugged, looking over to Vanya to see if she wanted to go with him. Technically, they hadn’t slept really last night, but it was because they had been talking the whole time, afraid if they went to sleep that it would have not been real, that they would have woken up alone.

Vanya told Diego she was glad to see him before letting Five lead her to their room. Klaus and Ben likely made a joke, but they were closing the door behind them pretty quickly. 

“Are you sure you’ll be able to get them?” Vanya asked as she settled against the bed. “We could always have them get here another way.”

Five shook his head. “It’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“Will I be able to go along without any trouble though?” she asked, scrunching her face up.

“Yes, absolutely,” he told her. “I don’t want to separate from you again, and since you want to come along, it works out.”

She was silent a second, then she glanced up. “Five?”

“Yeah?” He leaned down as he spoke, and she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him down to kiss him.

“Vanya, we need…” his voice trailed off as her voice came to his mind.

_ “I need you.” _

***

Vanya pulled Five on top of her, and, as she did, she saw his experience of the last few months. Yes, they had talked about what had happened while they were not together, but she didn’t actually know what exactly he had felt. Her heart broke for him in that second. 

_ “We shouldn’t have left each other, Five, we can’t do that again.” _

And then he’s pulling her against him, promising that they won’t and kissing her neck and their thoughts were tangled with the single theme of want.

He lays her down on her back before his mouth moves between her thighs and the light bulbs shatter with her scream minutes later. He doesn’t even comment or seem to notice, continuing his ministrations until she thought the windows might break next. 

He pressed his mouth to her own, and she groaned at the thought he had about her tasting herself and he completely disrobed and there were a few moments of silence as they stared at each other before they were together again. 

She knew the others could hear her as she wailed and the lights in the house all flickered, but she couldn’t bring herself to care as she chanted his name and begged him to keep going and as the lights completely went off in the house but all she could see was bright blank whiteness against her eyelids that had screwed shut, he told her, through the bond,  _ “I am yours, I am yours, I am yours.” _

And as the tears came to her eyes and he kissed her cheek tenderly before quickly moving to dispose of the condom, she told him the same. 

***

Five did not get much rest before he was set to get Allison and Luther. Vanya didn’t either. They only stopped when Ben, Diego, and Klaus stomped over to them and informed them that they would be paying for the broken windows and electricity in the house and that they were happy for them but if they could  _ please  _ keep it down with their marathon fucking, that would be appreciated. 

Five, actually, had wanted to do more after that and be _much_ louder, but Vanya, panting, said maybe they should get some sleep. So, they did, and Vanya curled into his side and sleep found them instantly. 

Once they arose, they immediately had to go. Five got to Luther and Allison’s location with Vanya without trouble, but he was pretty certain he might pass out if they did that again, and yeah maybe they should’ve actually rested the day before. They all decided to get two rooms at a motel so he could rest. 

They ultimately decided to take a series of buses to their new home, Allison sleeping against Luther’s shoulder through each trip. And they were free of the life they had before, and they could almost pretend that they were just a normal group of four eighteen year olds going on an adventurous road trip on Greyhounds. 

When they eventually came back to the house, Ben, Klaus, and Diego were waiting for them. And then Klaus and Ben casually mentioned that Diego had been ordained online and also that they had already acquired a marriage license (and if it was through illegal means, they did not say). 

And so they all let Diego read the long and confusingly elaborate words to Ben and Klaus that everyone was well aware Klaus had been responsible for and listened to Ben give serious, thoughtful vows that were just a little bit teasing and Klaus give kind, romantic vows that were a lot too suggestive and they were not a normal home, no, but they were all safe, loved, cared for, and happy, and that is all that mattered. 

***

“You’re ready?” Five asked her for the twentieth time.

“Yes,” she said, raising her brows at him. 

“And you still want to do this rather than just going to college and getting dogs? Because we’ve been accepted to a lot of places and it’s not too late to change your mind here.”

“No, I want to do this still,” Vanya said. “Besides, there will be colleges and dogs in the future.”

His lips quirked at the corners at that. They were going to turn nineteen pretty soon, and they had told everyone about their plans to varying amounts of disagreements from the others. They eventually got their blessing, which was not necessary but they did not want to leave without having it, and they were all gathered to see them off as they went.

She took one second to look at the new place they called home, one that had not been ever pasted with posters of how to incapacitate or covered quietly threatening halls, and then looked at each of the others. Allison had just gotten her first major role, and Luther would be following her along. They were not married, yet, though when an interviewer asked about her soulmate again after a little bit of time off the spotlight, she had stared at the interviewer a few beats before saying very loudly who it was. Nobody ever asked any Umbrella Academy members who their soulmates were after that though. Diego came up about once a month, though he said he refused to introduce his soulmate until they promised to act normal around her. Klaus and Ben were planning to go to a college town for Ben to get his degree. They were all okay, content. 

Vanya hugged all of them goodbye and Five said they weren’t entirely useless and then that he loved them and hoped to see them after undoubtedly getting a bruise from Vanya’s elbow attacking him. 

And once she was certain that she was ready to say goodbye to all of this, she took Five’s hand and nodded at him. The last thing she saw was a coating of blue over all of their faces. 

And then they stepped forward into the future, never to be alone from one another again. 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been such a fun experience to write, and I am so thankful for the positive responses to this story! I want to especially thank everyone who has left kudos, and also I want to thank everyone who has left kind comments! You guys have motivated me to get this out as quickly as I could, and I think I wrote faster than I have in years! 
> 
> You guys have been so wonderful, and I appreciate you all so much. 
> 
> The next AU in the soulmate AUs I will be writing is going to be called “Human” and the chapters will be titled from The Killers’ lyrics. It is going to probably be given an E rating rather than an M rating, and it’s going to be super angsty so fair warning there. I have decided that I’m going to post the other AUs that are outlined at the same times I post for Human. I will try to update them all as quickly as possible. There is also going to be a fic I post that is not a soulmate AU but is an AU where Five is a club owner and Vanya is a dancer at the club, which will have an E rating.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I will post as consistently as I am able. There will be other AUs in this collection as well.


End file.
